beren
01-03-2005, 03:55 AM
The last week here hasnt been to flash for any decent viewing including Sun night with the Jup/Moon occultation {although its fantastic so many people have witnessed it and shared observations/images}but finally last night got a chance between extended breaks in between the clouds to test out some new 20x80 binos [purchased from AOE].
Ive always enjoyed using binoculars but my experiance has been limited to my 7x50s or a look through some 10x50s , ive always been curious to see what the larger scaled types are like . Noting the traffic on forums and browsing vendors i finally came about last week and ordered a pair of 20x80s from aquila optical and electronics , although unbranded they are distributed by oberwek and manufactured in china .Today they arrived {on time} , well packed and come in a good looking carrying case , the coatings on the optics are clean and exhibit a fine greenish /purplish tinge and overall they look tidy and well made {much of the body is rubber armoured , the only thing i dont like is the plastic outer coverings at the end of the two tubes }.First thing i checked after giving them the once over was to test them on my camera tripod {manfrotto 190cl with rc114 head}, the binoculars come with a central bar that has a attachment that connects with a tripod . Hooray the tripod handles them perfectly , before sundown i gave them a quick turn on some terrestial targets ....excellent ....did notice though some false colour on a contrasty light pole but into the night i couldnt tell.
Didnt get much of a chance to navigate the sky until after 11pm with the cloud around but once into it ...wow...the feild of view was great but with the extra mag and using two eyes the effect was addictive , kept thinking to myself if this what its like in surburbia with a full moon and cirrus cloud imagine what its like under favourable conditions .To give some idea on the FOV , the eta cariinea neb on one edge and you can just get the grand open cluster IC2602 into view , probarly on the verge of requiring a finderscope for it. Jupiter shows a disk and you can just make out two bands , saturn looks elongated {not sure if i saw spaces in between them }, see a lot of detail on the moon, but the best bit is cruzing the milky way ...just the exta detail over smaller binos where you see greater detail but still retain the sense of where you are, great bit of kit to fill in between those and a scope plus its great for nights where conditons or time prevent full setup
Ive always enjoyed using binoculars but my experiance has been limited to my 7x50s or a look through some 10x50s , ive always been curious to see what the larger scaled types are like . Noting the traffic on forums and browsing vendors i finally came about last week and ordered a pair of 20x80s from aquila optical and electronics , although unbranded they are distributed by oberwek and manufactured in china .Today they arrived {on time} , well packed and come in a good looking carrying case , the coatings on the optics are clean and exhibit a fine greenish /purplish tinge and overall they look tidy and well made {much of the body is rubber armoured , the only thing i dont like is the plastic outer coverings at the end of the two tubes }.First thing i checked after giving them the once over was to test them on my camera tripod {manfrotto 190cl with rc114 head}, the binoculars come with a central bar that has a attachment that connects with a tripod . Hooray the tripod handles them perfectly , before sundown i gave them a quick turn on some terrestial targets ....excellent ....did notice though some false colour on a contrasty light pole but into the night i couldnt tell.
Didnt get much of a chance to navigate the sky until after 11pm with the cloud around but once into it ...wow...the feild of view was great but with the extra mag and using two eyes the effect was addictive , kept thinking to myself if this what its like in surburbia with a full moon and cirrus cloud imagine what its like under favourable conditions .To give some idea on the FOV , the eta cariinea neb on one edge and you can just get the grand open cluster IC2602 into view , probarly on the verge of requiring a finderscope for it. Jupiter shows a disk and you can just make out two bands , saturn looks elongated {not sure if i saw spaces in between them }, see a lot of detail on the moon, but the best bit is cruzing the milky way ...just the exta detail over smaller binos where you see greater detail but still retain the sense of where you are, great bit of kit to fill in between those and a scope plus its great for nights where conditons or time prevent full setup