Quote:
Originally Posted by N1
Thanks John and Don for your comments on the bino viewing. It appears that using 2 separate OTAs makes a huge difference over splitting up the light cone provided by a single one.
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Hi Mirko,
To try and put that in to some form of perspective:-
1) A 12" Binocular telescope has about the same total light grasp as a 16" to 18" telescope, albeit shared between 2 eyes.
2) An 18" Telescope with a binoviewer gives about the same image brightness as a 12" to 13" telescope, albeit to 2 eyes.
The big thing to me is that binoviewers don't give you the same 3D effect and depth of perspective that you get with a true binocular telescope, or a pair of large aperture high quality binoculars. I am very fortunate in having access to both a very good 12" binocular telescope (Suchting mirrors) and a pair of 25 x 150 Fujinon Binoculars. It doesn't really got much better than those two instruments, for 2 eye viewing. The 12" binoscope is great because you still keep both feet on the ground and the views are stunning. I have used up to a 22" binocular telescope and while the views were exceptional when it all "clicked", they are pretty hard to handle and get right.
I have used high quality refractors to 15" aperture and newtonians to 36" aperture and the two single best telescopic views I have ever had, in over 40 years of observing, were M51 in Larry Mitchell's 36" Obsession and Eta Carina in the 12" binocular telescope, using a pair of 13mm Nagler T6's. The effect of the binocular telescope on the ETA Carina view made you feel like you were James T Kirk flying the Enterprise through the dust lanes as they gave the view so much "depth". Targets like ETA Carina, M42, The Tarantula, Omega Centauri and 47 Tuc just come to life in a binocular telescope and take on a whole new dimension.
Looking through a good quality medium to larger aperture binocular telescope (8" plus) is something every visual amateur astronomer should have on their bucket list.
Cheers,
John B