Binoviewing downsides

I'm thinking of getting a pair of Denks or such like for use on my C14. Binos seem to be the fashion of the moment, which makes me a bit wary. To balance all the good stuff I've been reading, anyone gone back to one-eyed viewing after a less than stellar bino experience and if so, why?

Many thanks,
Rich

Hi Rich,

Gene hit the nail on the head. I too found that a binoviewer has to be "transparent" to enjoy two-eyed observing, the primary benefit being comfort for me. Any reduction in image quality, and I quickly forget the comfort. So I went from bino back to mono and just recently back to bino (I had already doubled up ep's, so had an incentive to find something that works :S) It turned out to be a matter of finding the right one for my scope:

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=150

This discussion raged on the binoviewer forum earlier this year. Note, SCT's are much more forgiving on back-focus than Newt's.

Milt

The only downside I have come across so far with binoviewing is an obvious light loss when observing dso's from the city. For example, the orion nebula is invisible in the binoviewer from my back yard in Los Angeles, CA (in my 8" and 12" dobs) but it's easily visible in mono mode through both scopes. From dark skies however, the binoviewer turns the orion nebula (and many other dso's) into 3D like objects of beauty. This light loss situation certainly doesn't make me want to go back to mono viewing though, I just save my dso observing for dark skies and focus on the sun, moon, planets and stars from LA.

Hi Dick --

I'm still trying to decide between mono and bino viewing. The stereo-like experience with my Denk II's is really nice especially if I'm going to spend a lot of time with a single object. But a lot of my viewing is object hopping and for this I like to try a variety of magnifications and for this I like full access to my eyepiece set.
So ..... for my tastes there's going to be a time for both mono and bino viewing.

Bob Polcyn

I started off using a Denkmeyer II on my C-14 and quickly gave it up..just wasnt worth the premium as it did not significantly enhance the experience on most objects and the process of having to change two eyepieces everytime you want to shift to different objects got tedious very quickly...

The other point to consider is that on larger aperatur SCT's like the C-14 with narrower field of views you are going to want to use the 2" EP i.e. for Globulars (in my case I hit the Nag 31 and 41 Panoptic) and then quickly toggle back to the higher power 1 1/4 inch..Cant do that with the Bino inserted....Denk advertises the Richfield Starsweeper to counteract this issue however it has to be applied in the optics train between the Bino and OTA ...another thing to fumble with in the dark when you want to bypass/remove for narrow field views)...

I'm with you on the Planets and Lunar viewing with the binos. I find I don't need a filter for the moon even with my NS11GPS and the details really jump out. I think a pair of any binos for the moon are well worth the price. I don't do much in the DSO arena yet, but do like to use the tour mode on the SCt's. I toofind the monoview better for them, but have only done so with the NS8GPS so far with the binos in the NS11GPS al the time. On an aside, I also have a Vixen FL102S that I haven't tried with bino's, but don't think it would be preferrable as I like the sharp crisp look through it compared to the SCT's when I've used them all in mono mode. I se no reason to change. I use the APo for weeknights when I don't have much time and don't want to wait for cool down. They all setup fast enough. I may try the LVW's in the bino anyway as they don't cost much used.