Binoviewer convergence

[Wilso]

Hi all,

This one is for all you binoviewer users out there.
I have found that I have to really concentrate hard to converge the two images from my eyes together when using my binoviewer. Is this normal or just me
Once converged I can relax and enjoy the image though. This binoviewer is on microscope but essentially the same as used for astronomy. I have adjusted the inter pupillary distance and collimated the viewer to the best of my ability.

Any thing I’m missing out on doing?
Cheers

[Atmos (Colin)]

Is it just with those eye pieces that you struggle?
I owned a pair of Pentax 8.5mm a while ago which were optically great but I struggled merging with these.

Usually a convergence issue comes from some mechanical misalignment of the eyepieces caused by the binoviewer. I noticed this with the Baader Maxbrights which had 3 thumbs screws. Since moving to the Baader MkV and their different tightening mechanism I haven’t had the issue generally.

[Hoges (John)]

I've never had a problem with my Denkmeier's, until I bought some recent Baader Hyperions - their optical or mechanical paths are slightly different. Took me a little while to figure out what was going on, but when I started rotating the eyepiece in the holder, the image moved around enough to throw it out of collimation. This happened on a pair of 10mm's and 21mm's. I rotated the eyepieces till I got a satisfactory result and then put some small dots with a paint marker on them for reference. Most can get away with a little horizontal convergence (ie: going slightly crosseyed) but any horizontal or vertical divergence will give you headache real fast even if you can merge the images.


Also, I have noticed that even if I collimate by lining up a distant object against an edge of the field of view, I get a different result if I back off a 8" or so from the eyepieces while looking at, say a distant telegraph pole or tree/rock/farm shed - you can't see the whole field of view, but you can instantly tell if the images are still merged. When doing this, I'll relax or close my eyes and when open them, note how long it takes to merge the image. I think I trust this method more than lining up stuff on the edge of the field of view in both eyepieces with eyes in the normal position. I would have thought if you did it one way, it would be correct when doing the other but it's often not.....parallax error? Dunno, but it's worth experimenting with.

[Wilso]

Thanks guys for the input. I’m finding easier to converge the images the more I use it. A bit of brain training maybe?
I’ll definitely research the compatibility of the eyepieces with this equipment before proceed down any other track.
I found a good collimation reference for Binoviewers which uses your cross hair recticle as a guide. Can be used for astronomy as well!

https://ia802700.us.archive.org/30/i...ollimation.pdf

[Hoges (John)]

An interesting read and quite a few different ways to collimate bino 'heads'. Saved for future reference, cheers!