Anybody here looked through a binocular telescope?

I just posted a message about binoviewers, which got me thinking about binocular telescopes. After thinking about it for a while I'm wondering to myself why aren't binocular telescopes(reflectors) more popular? And don't say cost and size. Light buckets in the 8"-15" range don't cost a lot compared to 4"-6" APO's. And size could be fixed by using a truss design.

Has anybody ever looked through a binocular telescope? Does a bino-scope make it seem that you are viewing through much larger optics? In other words does a 15" bino-scope feel like a 20" mono-scope?

Those things look cool. I saw an ad for one made by JMI in S&T magazine. Two 6" newtonians set up as binoculars. I'm gonna buy one when I win the lottery.

A friend of mine has a 4.7" Binoscope made by Tatsuro Matsumoto from Japan. The images through it are like 3D. The optical tubes are both achromats. It is very impressive and when he goes to star parties, a lot of people are always wanting to take a peek through his scope. It was very reasonably priced. I think he paid about $3200 with the mount. Including shipping from Japan.

Clear, Dark and Steady Skies,

Spaced-Out Bob (Chan)

I've looked through a number of ATM versions, from a 6" Newtonian to a 10" refractor that was at Stellafane a few years ago. The only commercial binocular telescopes that I've used have both been refractors, the Orion 80mm BT80 ($869 without mount) and the legendary (and rightly so) Fujinon 25x150 (~$9600 without mount). Despite what you want to hear cost and size are the major factors. I suppose collimation may just be another consideration.

Note the size of the footprint of the 8" f/6 binocular Dob that Eugene Artemyeff entered into the telescope competition at Stellafane this year - http://dvaa.org/php/mpix.php?p=Stellafane_2003&i=BinocularAndPorterTurret

Binocular telescopes do produce wonderful views but they don't come cheap.

Dave Mitsky

If you have $4K burning a proverbial hole... search for binoscope in the Ads (twin Maks). There's a new Yahoo Group called Binewt if you are interested.

Cost, size, difficulty to mass-produce, and tweakiness. I don't think the design has quite been perfected yet.

I have not had the pleasure of looking through a big pair.

-- William