Binoculars and Binoviewers

Binoculars:

	I am not much of a binocular user, but I did buy an inexpensive pair of 12 X 60’s binos (Chinese “Visoneer” brand) largely because when I started back into observing in 2000, the conventional wisdom was that "every observer should have a pair of binoculars".
	I was frustrated by my inability to use these binos successfully, so I got the Oberwerks’ mirror mount(http://www.bigbinoculars.com/mirror.htm) and mediocre quality "Geneva" brand tripod (Bausch and Lomb-clone).  This allowed me to look down--microscope style-- which was certainly easier, but made it difficult to gauge where in the sky the binos were actually pointing.  I therefore made a mount of a scrap of 2x4 lumber to hold my green laser pointer.  (These was years before the recent hype about green lasers as a health hazard or terrorist threat to aircraft.)
	I subsequently bought a cheap pair of 15 x 70's (Barska).  These brought more light grasp but were again tough to hand hold.
	I decided to go a bit more upscale, buying a pair of the longer focal length Oberwerk 20 x 80's (http://www.bigbinoculars.com/2080d.htm) from a fellow NOVAC member.  Nice light grasp, but definitely need to be mounted on a tripod for any kind of useful viewing.
	Fortunately, I had already acquired a Bogen monopod and Manfretto 3265 pistol grip tripod head.   http://www.bigbinoculars.com/monopod.htm  The build quality of the Bogen was good, but I really fell in love with the 3265 tripod head-- it makes it intuitive to point the binoculars virtually anywhere in the sky.  Because of this, I invested in a good quality tripod, a Bogen 3011.  (Photographers gripe about its 2 lb weight, but for an astronomer it feels feather light!)

That said, the only pair of binos that I truly consider indispensable are the pair of East German Army issue DF 7 x 40's I purchased on the surplus market.  These were made by Zeiss in the Jena factory in the former DDR, and are arguably among the best Zeiss glass made during the Cold War.  They are heavy (3+ lbs), armored, have individual helical focused eyepieces instead of a central stalk, and are waterproof and reportedly nearly indestructible (i.e., soldier-proof).  7 power is something I can actually hand hold in comfort.  The wide (8.5 degree) field of view, acceptable exit pupil (5.7mm), outstanding low light performance, and superior off-axis light baffling render these a genuine pleasure to hold and to use.  Here is a link to a review and comparison of them to other Warsaw Pact surplus optics: http://www.holgermerlitz.de/kronos8x40.html

Binoviewers

I have owned two Harry Siebert binos, but never a real "binoviewer nut" until I got my PST and started solar observing. 

"Plumbing pipe special"  His early models made in 2000 (when Denkmeier was a mere gleam in Bill and Russ's eyes, I suspect) featured copper plumbing pipe fixtures.  Performance was "OK" except for the fact that it used thumbscrews to hold each eyepiece in place (which affected their parallelized alignment) and the right eyepiece holder featured a friction "slip focus" which would slide in and de-focus the eyepiece as you viewed.  They came with a 1.7X barlow (necessary for use on a Newtonian), which was pretty good in an era when most other binos needed a 2-3X corrector.  At under $500 new, they were among the few alternatives at that time to the expensive Televue and German binoviewers that dominated the market.   I sent my pair back to Harry in '03 for some modification, and afterwards they worked better.  Still, for the entire time I owned these viewers, I always had to "train" my eye to successfully merge the two images, spending 5-10 minutes doing so via some eye focusing exercises an optometrist had taught me as a kid (when I wore glasses).

"Black Nights" Because of this indifferent performance,  I had no hesitation in scrapping these early binoviewers for Harry's more polished "Black Night" binos (http://www.siebertoptics.com/SiebertOptics-blacknightbinoviewers.html) when a pair came up on Astromart in '04 for a great price.  These are converted microscope heads, have a clear 22mm diameter aperture-- which means no vignetting on eyepieces of that focal length or smaller-- and came with a 1.8X adapter for use with reflecting telescopes.  They are smaller than the copper specials, and I was able to make them work successfully straight out of the box.  They got a new lease on life when Harry made me the prototype 1.3X adapter for the PST (Solar Binoviewing), since this allows very low magnification observation of deep sky objects.   

UPDATE:  When I reassembled my "three headed solar rig" (Solar Binoviewing) in March 2006 after the Winter Star Party, I apparently forgot to tighten the retention bolts holding the telescope mounting plate to the tripod head. When I carried the solar rig outside and set it down, the scopes--complete with binoviewer-- came off the tripod and fell towards the sidewalk.  I caught the assembly in mid-air (fast reflexes come in handy), but the momentum of the binoviewers atop the relatively long PST Optical Corrector caused the bino head to snap off cleanly, and crash down onto the sidewalk.  Arghh!!!  Fortunately the $500 pair of Nikon eyepieces came through their violent encounter with concrete fine, and when I examined and reassembled the binoviewer, even the collimation appeared to be acceptable.  Still, I would judge this a significant design weakness in these binoviewers.

I tend to use a pair of Nikon 9-21mm eyepieces for my binoviewing.  These are converted spotter scope eyepieces, and I had to add a "millimeter scale" since they were calibrated in magnification power units for Nikon field scopes.  I also have a pair of Siebert's older 35mm eyepieces, a pair of Meade series 4000 26mm super plossls, and recently got a second Televue Panoptic 22mm so that I can use them for wide field/medium power binoviewing. Siebert's PST adapter also works as a good low power unit for nighttime use.