Posts Made By: Jerry Wheeler

Received the new Miyauchi 71mm. from Kevin at bigbinoculars. Sorry I am not able to post a photo. ( you can see a photo at bigbinoculars.com) Kevin thought this was the first pair in the US. I will do my best to desribe them and how well they worked. I just dont have the knowledge to post a review like some of the great ones I have seen here. They are great looking and constructed very well. 22in long with shields in and 25in with them out. Shields move in and out very smooth. Comes with a nice little 3x12 erect image finder that works well. Comes with 22x eyepieces. 40x and 115x are also availabe. I got the 40x. The little carrying handle works fine. But I laugh everytime I look at it. I believe I have the same one on my kitchen cupboard. Lens caps and eyepiece caps fit snug and wont fall off. I mounted them on a TV Gibralter mount and it works well with the 45 degree eyepieces. First night very bad seeing due to smoke from a brush fire. Last night clouds. I set up my 16x70 Fujinons to compare views. Looked at the moon for a few minutes before it went down. Very sharp with good contrast in the Miyauchis. The Fujis were a little brighter but with a yellow edge around the moon. Not present in the Miyauchis which had very little color if any. I like the focus on the 71s very smooth! With just the right amount of drag. Before conditions got worse I went to Mizar. The 71s split the stars at 22x perfect as two discs. At 40x it was better yet with a large space between them and still very sharp. The Fujis were a hassel to me and hard to focus. The 71s just snapped into focus. On the first night I used my old TV Oracle 76mm (if your not familiar with this scope its one of the first triplets TV made 20+ years ago) I tried the Oracle using many differant TV eyepieces. The best view of Mars was through the Miyauchis with the 40x eyepieces. I could see more surface detail than with the Oracle 76. This surprised me very much. Image quality in the Miyauchis was best at close to center. This I want to look into more under dark sky and better conditions. All of this viewing was done from my backyard and very light polluted. Im going to take them to the Goldendale Observatory next week. Hope someone there can help me do a better review also. I think the 71mm f/8s will be great for me. The 45 degree eyepieces make viewing much more pleasant by far. I hope there is some information here and not to many mispelled words. I think after I get back from Goldendale I will have a better technical review. I will do my best to ansewr any questions anyone might have on these new binoculars. JW PS These binoculars came with no paperwork,intructions or specs.

Marty Baader Planetarium makes the bracket you want. Its a real easy conversion and works great. Very solid. I bought mine from Alpine Astronomical in Eagle Idaho. For $70 + $10 shipping.You should be able to get all the dealer info from the Google search engine by typing in Baader Planetarium. Jerry

Mike - I ordered the pair that Kevin had of the Miyauchi f/8 22 / 71mm. I also got the 40 times eyepieces. May go for the 115s later. I will do my best to post a review when I receive them. But im no binocular expert by any standards. JW

Ray - One thing to consider is interchangeable eyepieces when buying. I dont believe this is possible on the Miyauchi 60mm. Im still testing the new Miyauchi 71mm f/8. Watch for further posts on them. JW

I agree with Mike on the 115 x eyepieces for the Miyauchi 71s. I could not get them to come into focus. Sent mine back but kept the 40x that work very well.Sams 115x seem to have worked very well though. I wonder why? I also agree 60 or 65 x would be very useful with the 71s. I have had my 71s for about 8 months, guess I was the lucky dawg who got the first pair in the US. I have had no problem with the finder mount. I hardly use the finder since I dont know what im looking for anyway. The more I have changed eyepieces the better they seem to stay in place. They dont realy lock into place but are much harder to turn loose now than when I first purchased the 71s. I used the same comparison as Mike except instead of a Ranger I used a TV Oracle 76. Another argreement I had with Mike was on Jupiter and Saturn. They were oustanding through the 71s. Saturn was beautiful. Thats where the 60x would really be nice to have. Hope they make some. The Oracle 76 was really shown up on Saturn. Much better contrast in the 71s. I sold the Fujis to hard on my old neck. Plus when I posted my first notes on the 71s I thought the Miyauchis were much better (except in FOV) so I sold them. Im doing some experimenting on trying to make other eyepieces work in the 71s. If I have any success I will post. Thanks again Mike for getting more information out on the Miyauchi 71s I think the have a good future. Jerry Wheeler