Posts Made By: Brian Goodman

It's pretty well known that stopping down large Achro telescopes kind of "cleans" up the image, but at the cost of light gathering. I never have heard to much about this concerning Binocular performance though. Yesterday I read Alan Adlers article in S&T, Sept 2002. "Some thoughts on choosing and using Binoculars for Astronomy". His explanation of the Astro Index comparisons of magnification vs objective diameter got me to thinking if I could clean up the image in my 100mm Oberwerks without loosing to much light gathering and resolution. I put two Orion 120mm objective covers with the center cap's off which stopped my 4" objectives down to 2". I guess this was turning my Obies into 22x50's (!). Under a full moon last night, I was shocked and rather delighted at what I saw. Any problem that my Obies had with flairing on stars was eliminated into nice pinpoint stars. I spent a couple hours comparing open clusters with the caps on and off. The light gathering difference was actually very slight and the resolution and sharpness seemed to jump up a notch. I saw no color on the full moon, and the contrast and resolution seemed very much improved. I assume I'm lowering my exit pupil and raising the F/ ratio by stopping these down?. Anyway, I thought it made a much nicer, more enjoyable image. Any thoughts on this would be great...Bri

Ch 7 news in Denver is reporting the increasing number of sightings of Tarantulas in Co Springs. It seems that the dry conditions that we have had for the last few years is bringing them up from the southwest states. And now it is mating season, and they are entering the city looking for mates. It is reported that their bites can pack a heck of a wallop. I'm in northern CO, but maybe I'll stock up on a few cans of Raid!. Anybody ever have a close encounter of the third kind with a Tarantula?.

Just recieved some replacement eyecup's from Kevin at Big binoc's. He had a little catalog in there with his Binocular listings. He had a picture and a description of these on the list offered at $425. They are not listed on his web site though. Just wondering if anybody has seen or used this Binocular. Looks like a big 20x90.



http://www.binocularschina.com/binoculars/25x100FB.html

Was checking out Denkmeiers ad on their new eyepiece line. They sound pretty sweet. Certainly in the premium eyepiece price range. 21mm and 14mm were what my Pentax XL's were. Using my 8" SCT and the duel power switch; even with the starsweeper, I found that the 14mm gave a magnification range that was much to high for my conditions and preferences. Way to high. The 21mm fit the power switch range alittle bit better, but still to high. Wouldn't something in the 30mm range give a more usable magnification range with power switches for a more variety of scopes?. I have to deal with jet streams where I am at, so I do get the best results with lower power, but I have read alot of posts from other people who deal with the same thing. Anyway; shouldn't Denkmeier make a sweet 30mm eyepiece set?. Or do you guy's really pump up the power in the way that I can not.

Hi Guy's. I certainly have a question. Right now I have a Mamiya 645 system worth a couple grand. I have been doing my own processing and developing for many years in my darkroom. I'm even in a couple galleries with a few Black and white landscapes that I took up in Glacier. But, I am totally burned out on the chemical darkroom . I have never used a Digital camera, but I am thinking of trading all of my Mamiya equipment for a new 8.0 Megapixel Canon powershot pro1 and a Canon i9900 inkjet printer. With that setup, I can print up to 13"x19", which more or less is what I have been doing for the last few years in my darkroom. I have a nice Dell computer , so I can ad all the photoshop stuff. I guess the question I have is about the image quality I can expect compared to the medium format film images that I am used to. I'm hoping that it would be comparable at this relative small size print. Will everything still have the sharpness that I am used to?. Can a digital setup such as this produce a professional looking print?. Any thoughts would be great! Thanks

Didn't I read that somewhere? . It looks like the way it is ,is the way it's going to stay. Nothing you can do about it. On a positive note, we got 3 feet of fresh powder in Steamboat. What the forum needs is a Colorado ski vacation 8) .

Went up to Leadville Colorado to shoot with my 20D. Spring is slowly coming up here.

20D 17-40 F4/L

Hi guy's. Nebula observing with Binocular's can be awesome. I have a pair of Fuji 16x70, Orion 20x80 Megaview, and the 22x100 Oberwerk's. Yes, the Fuji's are sharp and bright, but to small. The 20x80's have good nebula performance, but I wanted more. The 22x100's are just about perfect for me. The step up from 20x80's in light grasp is very clear. I do have a pitch black sky site from my deck so I,m sure that help's alot. All of the brighter Nebula out their are very impressive through the Oberwerk's. I have mine mounted on a Heavy duty UniMount on a Bogen 3058 with a lazy boy recliner. By the way, M31 through my Oberwerk's is much more impressive than my 8 inch SCT with a single eyepiece. I just got a Denkmeir Binoviewer for my scopes, so two eye viewing should just get better! Go for it!

I sure enjoy my Oberwerk 22x100's. They also have very good edge performance and sharpness, which is a good thing. Mine were out of collimation when they arrived, but it was very easy to collimate them. Took about 15 second's. The ability for user collimation is a huge plus.