Posts Made By: Ed Zarenski

I think the value of a Wanted ad, other than someone might just contact you and offer the wanted product, is that it may prompt someone to post an item for sale that otherwise might go un-offered.

Anxiously anticipating the arrival of mine any day now! edz

Several of my favorites are included in your list. I do all my viewing with a 5"SCT, 6" CR150, and a 80mm widefield

7789 Cas, on moonless nights outstanding
M11 Scutum best with a little higher power to see deep
M37 Auriga like glitter sprinkled across the sky
M46 Puppis, only recently found the planetary
869/884 Per, the Double cluster, spectacular wide field

To those I would add:

6940 Vul, like 7789 best on moonless nights
IC4756 Ser, a massive cluster great in binoculars
2264 Mon, spend time here to split out 8 components of s Mon spread over 5'.
M45 Tau, Pleiades, never tire of looking at this one.
457 Cas, the Owl, if larger it would be a constellation

It wouldn't do to have all the people retpye all the good stuff they've posted on binocs to here in the equipment forum. There are a number of threads on best 7x's best 10x's and best bang for buck already posted down in the BINOCULAR FORUM. Happy reading. edz

The closest thing I've seen is this available on Amazon for 20-30* north. It has a nice feature in that the facing south view is shown on the flip side.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0961320761/ref=pd_sim_books/002-7946786-3637654?v=glance

The UO orthos are worth more than $35 used. They are much better than the plossls you own. They do have about a 10% to 15% narrower field of view. I own the 30mm, 5mm and 7.5mm ultimas. I also own almost all the UO's. The 7.5 Ultima is pretty good. The 5 Ultima is not so good. The UO's resolve fainter objects better and are sharpest right to the edge. The UO Konigs have a wider field of view, but are not as sharp toward the edge as the orthos, especially the 16mm Konig. The 12mm Konig is a better choice, sharper total field of view than the 16 and it has longer eye relief. I would buy all the orthos, you will be amazed at the difference in the view thru the orthos as compared to the average plossls. edz

The above statement is accurate. In order to show anyone else an object in binoculars for all but the brightest objects, they must be mounted.

The Little Giant binoculars are said to have image sharpness fall off dramatically beyond 50% out from the center. My experience with two other Orion Binoculars, the Ultraview 10x50 and the Giant 16x80 is the same. Image degrades by the time you are 60% out from the center to the point that you cannot see Alberio split as a double star. That is poor performance. As for the center 50% of the fov, the Orion 16x80 were one of the sharpest binoculars I've ever owned. But that is not a good indication of how usable they are.

My point is this: If you have a binocular with a 4 degree field of view and only the center 50% is sharp, you have reduced the usable area of view from the maximum possible of 12.5 square degrees down to only 3 to 4 square degrees. That is poor performance. I own six different pair of binoculars. This kind of performance drop off is readily noticable when you go from one pair to the other.

Oberwerk 15x70s hava a max fov of 4.4 degree with a sharp field ver 80%+. Pentax PCF 12x50 have a 4.2 degree field ov view with a sharp field over 90%.

You would not notice the drop of in sharp field performance when viewing double stars or small globulars, but you would have a hard time with M81 and M82 in the same fov, or you might have a hard time with an extended object like M33.

edz

I guess the biggest challenge for me Daryl is to recognize that the way I do it isn't the way everybody does it. I'm so accustomed to mounting my binocs that I rarely show anything thru hand-held. What I liked hearing the most is that you are out there showing someone else what you see.

Although you can use those 15x70s for scanning handheld, you will really enjoy the views thru them mounted. They are very capable. I've logged many Messier and NGC objects and close doubles thru my 15s.

Keep showing other people, every chance you get. edz

The AT1010 doesn't need much mount. it's pretty small and lite. I have mine on an EQ2/CG3. I think the Skyview Pro is probably more than you need for this scope. edz

For your reading pleasure.

http://www.cloudynights.com/howtos2/binoc-collimatin.htm

edz