Posts Made By: Glen Scott

James I am a little unclear about your #4 conditions.
Did you happen to notice how many stars were visible in the Little Dipper at the time you were observing the Trapezium. I observed E and F on a few occasions in my 15in. F5 dob at about 200x. Wisconson sucks in the winter time and I haven't seen them at all this season. Resolving them in a binoviewer shouldn't be to big a challenge regardless of the binos used. I suspect seeing conditions were probably worse than you thought they were in the area of the sky you were
observing Orion in. Also was M42 as close to the zenith as it could be. Just a few more degrees toward the horizon depending on the Latitude you are observing from can make the difference between resolving E and F or seeing mush. Clear Skies, Scotty

Try merging images in the daytime. Your fields of view should completely overlap. If they are are not two identical images then you have significant alignment issues which should be fixed by the manfacturer.
Hope this information helps. Scotty

Check out these reviews here on Astromart

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=143

http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=213
I don't think the reviews here on Astromart are unsavory at all. You can also ask Don Durbin who is the moderator of the Binoviewer forum here on Astromart what he thinks of the pair he owns. Scotty

Mike is this view looking into the focuser without an eyepiece in it or is this the amount of mirror you see with the binoviewer in the focuser without an eyepiece? The latter condition more accurately represents the amount of vignetting
or under illumination of the field that may be occuring.
If an OCA is used the entire cone of light will be intercepted by the objective lens of the OCA due where it is placed in the optical path. Also if high power for planetary observing is desired you will probably achieve better results with a barlow in front of the binoviewer rather than using eps significantly shorter in FL than 10mm
for high power.
Scotty

Pat what scope will your wife be using her new binoviewers in.
Scotty

A partial mirror used as a beam-splitter will exhibit ghost images on bright objects which is why they are not generally preferred for astronomical usage in binoviewers.
Scotty

Have you contacted Harry and explained
your problem to him. With your non-moving primary and lack of in-travel
to reach focus you will need one of Harry's more complex OCA designs with a smaller in-travel requirement. Harry makes a 1.8x OCA that is parfocal and should solve your problems.
Scotty