Posts Made By: Gary Hinks

David who started this thread. What Robert says throughout this thread should be taken to heart. I have been in this hobby for nearly twenty years and have owned both apo's and SCT's. I sold my Genesis because one night when the seeing was really good my old Meade 2080 gave such a better view of Saturn than the the Televue. Aperture does indeed matter providing quality optics. I also owned the panoramic mount and believe me what Robert says is very true. Could I suggest you go with a 7-9" scope that is portable for viewing small objects and planets and save your money for a large pair of binoculars such as the 25/40 x 100's from bigbinoculars.com. Believe me the view of the double cluster at 25x with both eyes will blow away the view in any single eye intrument no matter how much contrast they have. My two cents worth. Gary

Hi everyone. I have found that very simple dew caps can be made from BEE HIVE corn syrup containers, 1 litre size, for the oberwerk 15 x70's probably no doubt for the 11 power also and as well for other brand name chinese binoculars. Simply have a sharp knife and cut them out as long as you want. Then fill the inside with black heavy paper leaving about an inch space inside for the dew cap to go over the objective. I covered the outside with you guessed it duct tape! I'm from Canada and therefore I don't know if this brand and size is available in the USA but it fits perfectly. Regards, and hopefully clear skies, Gary

Hi David. I have the 25/40 binoculars so cannot comment on the interchangable eyepiece model, but I can still offer a few suggestions. They are big and they are heavy but like all things, that compromise gives you a better image than the the pro optics. At least according to the June 2000 S & T review of both binoculars. Another plus is they have longer eye relief at 25x than the pro optics (14 mm vs 10). You also get the mount with the binoculars and have the option as I did of making your own tripod buying the adapter and saving 100 bucks. As far as being straight through once again we have a compromise. Yes it can get uncomfortable way up high but everytime you aim the binoculars you are looking at your aiming point. I never need a seperate finder of any kind with these binoculars as it is quite easy to still find your target when you are looking straight through. Also if you get yourself or make a variable height chair you can observe quite high comfortably. The only caution I would suggest is the higher power involved with the model you are considering. I feel 40x is about as high as you would want to go with the factory mount of course you can still substitute other oculars and get a lower power with the model you are thinking about. I can't say enough how much I enjoy these binoculars. I guess we all have different needs but I really enjoy my pair even though it keeps the muscles working to set it up. The views and comfortable eye relief are worth it (for me). Regards, Gary