Why I choose a Baader Mk. V

Started by rumpledoll, 09/12/2007 02:41PM
Posted 09/12/2007 02:41PM Opening Post
I use Baader Mk. V binoviewer with my scopes. Some of the advantages as I saw them when I choose it over the Denk II:

1) Optical & mechanical quality. While I have not done any comparison tests and didn't want to have to do them, I certainly believe that the optical quality of the prisms and beam spliiter as well as the robostness of the internal alignment is second to none. I wanted top quality optics to go with my top quality scopes. Are some other binoviewers just as good? I do not know, but it is certainly possible (or even likely?).

2) Optical design. The glasspath correctors available for the Baader corrects for "the slight color error and spherical aberration that a prism beam splitter naturally introduces into the light path of all binocular viewers." It was also designed by Roland Christen so I felt confident that it did what it says it does. Additionally, the prisms in the Baader are very large and will provide the most illumination of edges of 24mm Pans for wide field views.

3) Optical quality of accessories in the chain. As part of a high quality optical chain, I wanted to use only top flight optics. For barlow power I use an AP 2" Barcon and could use other top shelf optics (e.g. the Baader Fluorite Flatfield Converter or TV Powermates). I did not feel confident that the quality of the lenses used in the various power switches were necessarily up to snuff. Additionally if I felt I didn't like how the 2" Barcon was performing, I could easily switch it out for something else while in the powerswitch I'm stuck with what's in there.

The Baader Mk.V come with a high quality T-2 prism diagonal and I also use (now mostly) the Baader T-2 Maxbright diagonal.

4) Comes to focus. I knew that the Baader Mk.V would come to focus in the T-2 diagonals with no corrector in place in my telescopes for the widest fields possible.

I knew I was giving up the great convenience of the Denk Power switch for the manual screwing and unscrewing of correctors and extensions in the Baader. I explicitly made that trade-off to try to insure (as best I could) that all the optical components in the chain were top quality. I admit that this is my perception but it is the reasoning I used.

Philip