Posts Made By: Mike Swaim

Thank you Milton! That was a most enjoyable review. For most of us, reviews like that will probably be as close to a view through one as we're likely to get. I particularly enjoyed the comparison to the TV101.

Mike Swaim

Hi Greg,
If your Dad doesn't already have a good planisphere, I would HIGHLY recommend getting him one. A planisphere and some form of red, (or green) light should be the very 1st astro items to be added to any kit. Typically, when I find out that friends and coworkers are interested in astronomy, I make a gift of a medium sized planisphere to get them started. 2 that I especially like are the Miller Planisphere and "The Night Sky" by David Chandler. Be sure to get one appropriate for your Dad's latitude. There's also the giant Levy planisphere that lots of folks love for it's ease of use. I don't use it, cuz it doesn't fit into my astro bag.

In addition to that, I really like Rick Schaffer's "Your Guide to the Sky". I like this book so much that I've given away several copies. It's optimized for the mid-US, with a different area of the sky highlighted for each month of the year. It features both an All Sky & a Zoom map for each month. It's one flaw, is that Schaffer recommends 7x50s with a 7* FOV, and the Zoom targets are set up to reflect that preference. (Most modern am. astro bino buffs have realized that the 7mm exit pupil of the classic 7x50 is not optimized for either light polluted observing sites, nor for optimum resolution from most adult's eyes). Not withstanding that, it's an excellent choice to get someone really familiar with the sky. I put thumbtabs on the copy I kept, to reflect the different constellations, and use it that way, rather than month by month.

Here's what's in my Eagle Creek shoulder bag that accompanies me whenever I go out to observe with binoculars or small telescopes:
(2) planispheres (his 'n hers)
(2) red LED ligts
"Your Guide to the Sky", Rick Schaffer (<$20)
Sky & Telescope's laminated Messier Card (~$5?)
Nat'l Audubon Soc. "Field Guide to the Night Sky" (<$20)
Brent Watson's excellent laminated "Finder Charts of Bright Telescopic Objects" (~$8)
Brent Watson's laminated "Finder Charts of Overlooked Objects" (~$8)

Those last 2 books are very easy to use, fairly inexpensive, spiral bound, laminated charts that feature objects easily seen in most binoculars, (Bright Telescope Objects), or small telescopes (Overlooked Objects).

I've got a whole bookshelf of astro and cosmological books, but that short list is what I've found to be the most useful in the field, and is particularly suited to teaching others, or initial learning.

Mike Swaim

I extracted that from Mel Bartel's excellent treatise on rich field telescope viewing. He linked to it from there.

So, go to this site, then either read the whole article (highly, highly recommended), or just go to a section titled, "OK, So Increasing the Magnification Doesn't Work-- How About Decreasing the Mag?" then click on the first hyper link

http://www.efn.org/~mbartels/tm/rft.html

There are very clear median lines that could be drawn from that chart.

roughly 6.5mm max pupil from age 20 to age 40
roughly 5.5mm max pupil from age 40-65
roughly 4.5mm max pupil from age 65-75

But the thing of it is, to get those median lines, one has to average folks that are WELL outside those ranges at every point. So, my point is to suggest that unless you know for a fact that your max pupil is X, then it's perhaps not terribly kind to yourself to assume limitations or abilities that you may or may not actually possess.

Making matters worse, is the whole idea that best acuity is never at max pupil dilation, but rather something smaller to get away from the natural abberations at the edge of the pupil. The question then becomes, how much to reduce exit pupil from personal max? That question is addressed in some form in the Mel Bartel article.

Mike Swaim

Ya know, everytime I start adding up what it'd cost to fabricate one's own binoscope, two thoughts occur to me. One, is what a comparitive bargain such things as the premium astro version Oberwerk 25/40x100s and similar binocs are. Two, that it really might make the most sense for me, personally, to think in terms of a binoviewer as an alternative to binoculars over 100mm. Let's face it, $2K would buy a pretty good DOB and Denkmeier binoviewer.

Mike Swaim

Fantastic review, Jerry. Keep 'em coming, and don't worry so much about style. You're doing great. You've already answered a couple of my more pressing questions about these binoculars, and even given me a bit of a surprise. I was going to ask you about false color in these as compared to Fujinons. You answered that nicely. I was going to ask about contrast. You answered that, as well. The surprise was, that while I've been very curious how these would do stacked up next to a Ranger/Pronto, I didn't dream that you would have an Oracle. Your Mars comparative info is interesting. What magnification did you have the Oracle at? 40x? At higher mags, the Oracle ought to blow the Miyauchis out of the arena, but at 40x, I can see how the bennefit of two eyes might well tip the balance to the Miyauchis.

Keep comparing the Miyauchis to the Fujinons and the TV Oracle. Those are things that folks can relate to. (True, not everybody has an Oracle, but enough are probably familar with the Ranger/Pronto and ST80s that it's still a most valuable comparison.)

Technical info: How much do the Miyauchi Saturns weigh? What's their FOV with the 2 sets of eyepieces that you have?
Are the views clear and crisp to the edge of the FOV? What are the daytime views like? Do you think these would have application as a daytime spotting binoscope? (40x71mm is more or less what I decided as optimal for most daytime spotting situations. It'd be great if these could really do double duty.)

I've been extremely interested in these ever since I first saw them advertised on the Oberwerk site. I'm curious to know if by extending them to f/8, and by limiting the obj. size to 71mm, if they haven't cured the really awful false color in the 77mm Exceeds. Do you detect false color in the Saturns at all, on any target? As mentioned, I've been very, very curious to see if they could really stand in as a replacement for the Ranger class scopes. Your comparison to your Oracle tells me a lot. Keep it up.

Thank you very much,
Mike Swaim

This is just an off-the-wall thought, but if you're regularly using more or less the same chunk of ground, you could probably patch it cheaper and faster yourself than anything else you can come up with. If it's earth, then I'd guess that an hour with a pick, shovel and tamper would probably suffice for a small personal spot. Likewise, if it's asphalt, then a 5g. pail of patch from Home Depot and an hour's work would probably mend it well enough until it all gets redone next year. If you can guarantee that you'll be the lucky club member that always gets to set up there, then I would think either of those methods might be preferable to anything you can drag along with you each time. Just a thought.

BTW, I enjoy your posts.

Mike Swaim

4am 8-3-03 No stars visible. Summer inversion continues. Comparison of TV Ranger vs Leica Televid impossible.

New scope to arrive tomorrow.

Wonder how Stellafane is going?

Mike Swaim

If UPS does their part, (something I'm always very dubious about), then I should have one in hand tomorrow eve.
I doubt if I'll get a chance to actually use the thing for awhile, since it seems like my nightskies have been replaced by cotton candy. But, I'll definitely be posting impressions of it as I get a chance. All reports that I've read on these DSHes indicate that this is one heck of a bargain for a decent scope. Supposedly, they're made in Taiwan by the company that used to make them for Orion, before Orion switched to mainland Chinese scopes. Newsgroup reviews and comments tend to very slightly favor these Taiwanese scopes.
Honestly, with an 8x50 finder and (2) eyepieces worth about $100 combined, I don't see how far wrong one can go ordering one of these for $299. Even with shipping across the US, the total for mine was only $343. That's cheaper than I can build an 8" reflector. So, I'm pretty eager to see what I get, even if the skies in NC aren't cooperative for a bit.

More later...
Mike Swaim

I'm glad you posted this. It interests me. I've never had much luck with bins smaller than 6x30, but then, I've not tried in skies as dark as you're getting. Generally, I consider binocs under 40mm to be worthless for astronomy, but every now and again it's nice to be reminded that under extremely favorable conditions, nearly any quality optical aid can be put to good use. I wonder if the filter alone would suffice in dark enough skies?

Mike Swaim

It's good to see some competition in the over 10" DOBs. But $856 for a Khan (aka G.Sheng) 12" vs. $999 for a Discovery 13" doesn't seem like the GS 12" is really priced low enough. Some time ago, I had a conversation with a scope importer who suggested that an f5 12" Chinese steel tube DOB ought to be saleable in the US for around $600. Personally, rather than just a race to the bottom, I'm a lot more interested in seeing whether somebody like Discovery will come up with either a split tube or truss tube 13-14". To me, sizes over about 10" really, really need some mechanism to split up the weight and size of the tube. Also, having just taken delivery on the 8" G.S. (aka Deep Space Hunter), I don't believe I'd care for a scope much larger than this on these bearings and on this type particle board mount. As the scopes get bigger, much more attention needs to be paid to the rocker box/mount. Personally, I think the 8" is just about at the limit of what one person could easily move around as a complete scope, without even removing the tube, and over 10", I think the tube itself would need disassembly capability for most people. Just some things to think about.

Mike Swaim