Posts Made By: Erik Lin

I purchased a kit from Orion for about $15 The kit contains two packs of super soft lenses tissue, special fluid, camel hair brush, blower and instructions for cleaning...

You should clean lenses as little as possilbe. Tiny dust particles have little effect on performance but scratches from improper cleanning do. If you have a high end reractor such as Astro Physics or TMB you can go the the Yahoo users' group and ask the manufacturers directly.

Strictly in terms of light collectin AREA 2X 4 in refractors have combined aperture equivlalent to a Single 5.657" refractor. (you multiply by the square root of 2, ~ 1.4142). But since light from each of the two objectives reachs only one eye it is not clear if our brian received twice as much inforamtion.

For me personally, the difference of having binovision on DSOs and star clusters is quite dramatic! I can percive a lot more details with my 20X80mm binoculars than I can with my 80mmF5 refractor. You can try it yourself with a pair of 10X50 binos mounted on a tripod. Try capping and uncapping one of the objectives while keeping both eyes open. It seems the view is dimmer by at least 1/2 magnitude when one of the objectives of my 20X80 bino is covered.

Erik D

Daryl:

That's impressive! Where are you observing from that you can see M81 & 82 in 70mm binos with a full moon. I have yet to see them in my Mag 4.5 skies with my 20X80mm even thoug I know exactly where to look. My friend and I locted them last year in his NextStar 8 SCT but we had to look hard to see them.

ERik D

I did a quick search on google and come up with www.mirakeloptical.com. Looks like they will clean and repair vintage binoculars. No direct experience with the company.

Repairing them may be worthwhile if you want to keep them as a collector item. For regular astronomy use you will see much more with 12X60 or 15X70 binos. The Oberwerk 12X60 is available for about $110. Very good eye relief and edge sharpness. 9 or 15X60 models are also available. The Orion Secnix line offers decent quality 50mm binos for about $80.

ERik D

I don't have direct experience with the 11X56 moodel but I did purchase the 12X60 model about four weeks ago. I am quite satisfied with it so far. Edge sharpness is quite good(to about 80% out) and there is no hint of flase color even on the moon. I had a chance to look thru a pair of Celestron Ultima 9X63 the week before I bought the Oberwer 12X60 and I felt the Oberwerk is at least equal to the Celestron. The Celestron is $319. The Obewerk 11X56 is also small enough I would not mind taking it on a trip. I think you made a very good choice.

I think there are a few factors to consider:

1. Do you feel your existing C11 has superier optics compared to the average 11" SCT.

2. How much do you want to GPS Goto function?

The Nextstar 11 GPS package is the nicest SCT goto package in the over 10 inch class. The fork and OTA assembly is just manageable by one person. My friend has the Nextstar 8 non GPS version and it's quite easy to set up. The Nexstar 11 GPS offer the double fork arm plus GPS so it's even better. If you are pleased with the optical quality of your existing C11 but would like to have the Goto function it may be better to wait a while. the 11" GPS is a relatively new I I have not seen any discount from the $2,995 list price. There is bound to be some promtions later as the model gets more established.

Daryl:

Please refresh my memory. Did you get the 15X70s from Burgess? Oberwerk? or Barska?

You must have pretty dark skies. I also found M1 by accident last year in my 20X80 Orions but I have been trying to see M81 and 82 from my central NJ location without success. We did see the pair in my friend's Nextstar 8( just barely) from my backyard earlier this year. So far I have not been able to positively identify them in my 25X100mm ProOptics.

M39 near Deneb looks just like the drawing in Stephen O'Meara's Messier book in my 20X80s but M52 is tough to postiive identify.

Where do I look for NGC 1662 and 7789?

Erik D

Dean:

Since QC of these Chinese giant binos seem to vary from sample to sample I am more inclined to purchase from companies such as Oberwerk or Burgess whose speciality is astronmy gear. I have heard both Kevin(Oberwerk) and Bill Burgess check every pair before shipping. Oberwerk has been around for a few years and I have started to hear good things about Burgess Optical from people on this and other binocular forums.

Depending on where you live you may be able to go to a scope show or a local dealer who stocks the Oberwerk. I went to a small show in central NJ two month ago and purchased the Oberwerk 12X60 from Larry of Universal Astronomics(maker of bino mounts). I asked Larry for a new pair out of the box and was able to check obvious things such as collimation, loose focuser, and right diopter adjustments before making the purchase.... I also met Bill Burgess at the NEAF show in Rockland NY last year. I could easily saved $30-$40 buying a generic brand but since these binos are so competitively priced already I felt better buying a "Name" brand. When I shop for tripods I know a Bogen is a Bogen so I buy from a mail order dealer with the lowest price. Just my opinion.

BTW, I think the new Burgess 20X80 LW is a great idea: not much heavier than the Oberwerk 15X70 and the same price. Something to consider if you plan to use a tripod anyway.

ERik D

Thomas,

There are several reviews of the TV 85 on cloudynights.com. There is also a yahoo Televue discussion group with 1500+ members. You may want to sign up for that group and do a search on the TV 85. I have seen many postings of the TV85 there. Some even provide links to they own astro photos.

Erik D

I have used a 20-60X 60mm Celestron spotting scope, 80mmF5 short tube refractor and a Meade 4" SCT for terrestrial viewing. Have not tried anything bigger. None of the above socpes offer outstanding optics. The Meade SCT is OK with the supplied 25 mm MA eyepiece(40X) but dim with the 9mm(111X). My 80mm F5 gives sharp view of the planets at 88X(with 2X barlow). However, both scopes are awkard in daytime use with the 90 deg diagnol, reverse image and narrow FOV. IMO there is nothing much to be gained by going to a bigger scope in terrestrial viewing. The atomsphere rarely premits much more than 80X and you don't need larger objective to collect more light.

I am quite interested in the 100mm Pentax ED though. It's little brother, the 80mm ED, has received rave reviews here and elsewere. Since over 50% of my scope use is for astronomy from my backyard the 100m Pentax appears to be a great dual-use scope. It's also about 1/2 the price of a TV-101/102. I wonder how it would perform with a premium TV eyepiece at 100-120X compared to a Tele Vue APO?

Erik D