Binoviewer on your Refractor

To All Refractor owners,

Have you ever tried bypassing the diagonal and going straight into your refractor with your binoviewers?

You will find in most cases you can reach focus without the use of your OCA. It will also give you some very nice images. Even if you are using 1/10 wave diagonals you will still get a slight increase in light throughput.

It is of course a literal pain in the neck as soon as you get on a target 30 degrees or more above the horizon. I find a reclining lawn chair with a high refractor mount works the best. It is still a pain in the neck but a bit more tolerable.

If you have binoviewers that are 45 degree or a converted microscope head, this can be a very nice way of viewing.

I am sure most of you more experienced guys knew about this but maybe some of the newer people to binoviewing have not tried it yet.

Don Durbin

Don,

When I had my 5" Burgess refractor, I would use my binoviewers straight through on the sun. I got it in the late fall, so the sun was always pretty close to the horizon. I never really figured out if the view was better, but I only had the 2x TV corrector or the Denk 2" OCS which gave me 1.65x because it was the Newtonian version. I wanted to get down to the widest FOV possible for the visual impact. Going straight through gave me 42x and a 1.6 deg TFOV with the 24 Pans. Very nice. I was able to get set up with my observing chair in a very comfortable position, but a lawn chair would have been even better. I miss the 1.6 deg TFOV now that I'm down to just the Starmaster.

One thing I found was that the Denks could reach focus straight thru, but the Televues would not. I needed an extra 1/8" of backfocus that I didn't have for the Televues. That make sense as the TV's have a slightly longer light path due to the taller ep holders.

I tried straight through at night, but I didn't care for the contortions so much.

Clear skies,

Tom

Hi Don,

I tried the LOMOs I had straight through on both of my Vixens and they would reach focus. I would extend the tripod all the way and sit on a cushioned piece of wood. I hated it so much I didn't try it with the Denks or the BKs. I will never understand how the Japanese get used to no diagonals. BTW, now that you've had the 152 for awhile are you thinking about how nice an 8 would be? ;^)

Clear Skies,

Steve