Thank you all for your encouragement & kind words. Good to hear from you all again as well. I do have a little work coming soon, & there may be a little left over to invest in something a little more powerful to replace a little of what I had sold earlier…I hope so anyways.
Yep…star hoping is great fun!!! I love it…best part using my 12” Dob was the challenge using the Bino’s to find the targets.
No Ron…No Tripod or Mount-“as of yet”. I like to think I am very good at using my hands with those 15X70s, however I do agree, to really get the most out of them, a tripod is needed. I do use a portable camping lounging chair, as well the lying on the ground method. I use two neck braces on the one set of Bino’s in question, that I sling through each arm (like a rifleman but with two arms instead of one) to act as a harness for more stability. Combining some of these methods allowed me to line up Jupiter’s moon only just last night. It was my best attempt using the double neck brace method lying down and looking backwards over my lounging chair. Jupiter itself appeared as a crisp and bright large dot, with two moons two it’s left side and one to its right. The image was very sharp and looked as if it was part of a clock with the hour hand pointing at the 10 with the minute hand pointing at the 4. Off course I could not hold it that steady for more than a few seconds at a time, but for those moments I could get it that steady…it was a rewarding achievement!
My Next goal is to “maybe” pick out some doubles and see if I can tease out whatever, using the same methods that gave such a good result on Jupiter last night, not to mention learn the constellations all over again.
If I may just go on a little more…My next purchase is a toss-up…a bit hard to decide. I am really wrapped and excited about using binoculars…particularly with my new fond activities of Hiking and so on…I wish to dedicate a large portion of my Back Pack and attach amount of some kind to the outside of my pack. I have been looking at Garret for mounts…I think I will be going for a parallelogram attachment, however am unsure of its folding capacity to attach to the outside of a large Backpack alongside mount. The counterweight and weight overall is not as a greater concern as is the packing size!
The 15X70 binos I have fit inside my pack very well & I am figuring on getting myself a set of 20X80 Triplet set for the complete setup & using a pair of 8X42 mounted on top of pack or even off my hip…to use during the day and for star hopping while the 20X80s are mounted by night.
BIG DREAMS at this stage and more research needed on feasibility, however I’m working my way up to carrying a 25kg Pack over 12km…so far I have done a couple of 11.5km hikes with an 18kg pack quite easily…My NEW ultralight “GCI Sling Chair” only weighs 1kg and does an awesome job for bino viewing considering what it is. I can slide into all kinds of positions with this little chair
I’ll go light on a lot of other things as well and will happily share over half the weight for my night time observations.
Only other option I’ve considered is a short tube refractor…still a lot to consider on that one, with the 8X40s. Food for thought.