Posts Made By: Donald Durbin

Hi Bill,

I think you will find that this is the same binoviewer as what Burgess, Celestron, Stellarvue, William-Optics, and other are selling.

The Orion version does not come with a set of EPs like the some of the others.

Don Durbin

Tom,

I think the Panoptic is a good choice. I think the Radian would also work out. My favorite pair of EPs are still my 18mm Radians. I slightly prefer them over my 19mm Panoptics.

Don Durbin

Hi William,

An older Celestron binoviewer is on Astromart right now. It is 90 degrees. (Classified #425124 )

Some of the LOMO binoviewers and my B&L conversion were 45 degrees. I think the Takahashi Twin-View binoviewer came in both 45 and 90 degree models.

Don

I don't think there is an April 31st in 2006.

Linton,

I think the biggest thing in eyepieces matching is the point at which they achieve focus. For the most part, you want to be able to pop in the EPs and go. Having to move one EP up or mess with the diopters is a little bit of a pain.

I am a big fan of diopter adjustments for fine focusing or for someone with distinct prescription differences in their eyes, but tweaking in each set of EPs is too much.

For the most part EP bought at the same time from the same manufacturer will be pretty close and not cause you any problems. Televue's are pretty good for holding to a standard with great differences between build times. On the other hand Gary Russell EPs can vary a bit. I purchased two 2" 16.8mm EPs off astromart from different people and ended up with a parfocal ring on one EP just to avoid the problem I described. I have other Gary Russell 2" EPs bought at the same time directly from Gary that are matched perfectly

If you are making pairs from existing single EPs in your collection, you could find a problem. Buying a new pair from a vendor will give you a better chance of not having a problem. Buying a pair from someone else who is binoviewing should also give you a good match.

Don Durbin

Hi Jim,

If you are speaking of image quality on film or CCD then yes you could get a better image when using a StarSweeper( a focal reducer). The reason the image could improve is that the shutter speed will be reduced for the same image brightness. This in turn will reduce the effect of any tracking error.

Visually, everything we know about optics says the image will degrade slightly under the conditions that you describe. By using a focal reducer you create a faster light cone that magnifies any imperfections in your mirror.

Maybe you just happen to hit the sweet spot for magnification on the particular night you were observing. Try the same experiment over 3 or 4 nights with different EP sets and see if you can reliably duplicate your experience.

Don

Hi Ronald,

Try using a 1 1/4" diagonal. If you still cannot reach focus, screw the barlow onto the 1 1/4" diagonal. That should reach focus without any problem.

Don Durbin

Jerry,

I use a Sony HandyCam DVD201, an old Commodore 64 monitor, a scopetronix Digit T system, and a 40mm Plossl. The HandyCam has a 10x optical zoom, manual exposure, and manual focus controls.

It is not much for DSO, but it is great for Jupiter, Saturn, and especially the Moon.

The handycam remote control allows you to Zoom and record to DVD with the push of a button.

I bought the Handycam a little over a year ago. The newer chips may be more sensitive to light now and might let you do DSO. A handyCam comes with a hefty price though.

I have also coupled other cameras to EPs. The best I can tell you is experiment and see what you can come up with. X10 has some wired cameras that might work.

Don Durbin

Hi All,

I finally got a good look at the Sun today and I took the time to do a clear aperture check through both sides of the Burgess 24.

I simply held the binoviewers up to the Sun, I did not put them into a mount and fine tune the angle of the viewer. Both sides showed nice clean circles with no hint of any clipping. I marked the circles with a pen and went back inside. The diameter measured was 23.89mm. I am sure I could have gotten 24mm if I had worked on the setup a little more. I checked with the nose piece on and the nose piece off and I saw no difference.

In comparison, the BV125C read 20.3mm with some minor clipping present, the Siebert BlackNights read 21.5mm, the Denkmeier dielectric read 25mm, the Tele Vue Bino Vue read 27mm but did seem to have a noticeable clip on the left side and the Siebert 45mm Elites read 38.5mm.

Don Durbin

To All,

Our club had an event last night and I was able to test the 24mm Burgess in quite a few different scopes. With the 50mm nose piece and the supplied OCA the binoviewer was able to come to focus in every scope I tried it in. I went from a 20" DOB down to a Meade SN6. The main direction of my testing was mostly DOBs.

The Meade SN6 surprised me with how much inside focus travel it had. Using the Burgess 24 with it I was able to switch back to the 24mm nose piece and the supplied OCA.

I have not yet measured the magnification I am getting with the supplied OCA and the two different nose pieces.

Don Durbin