New 12" F5 Binocular under construction

[Satchmo]

Theres not a lot of ATM'ing going on around here so I'm posting a picture of progress my friend Paul Shopis is making on his 12" F5 binocular to raise discussion ( Hes not into typing so I'm raising this thread on his behalf ) .

Pictured is the now finished top end. 99% reflective star diagonals go into the focussers and the cages rotate to adjust for your eye spacing. With the 40% contrast increase and greater acuity a true binocular gives, this one should give an 18" monocular a run, but with a much more human hi fidelity two eyed experience and wider field than 18" too.

Mark

[[1ponders]]

Nice looking cages Mark. If the rotating cages work as well as Dave "binofied (http://www.binoscope.co.nz/)" Moorhouse's, they will be a treat to use. I tried his 8"ers in NZ and the experience was awesome.

[h0ughy]

WOW, looks like the rear of a jet fighter! this will be awesome when completed, are you doing the mirrors Mark?

[Satchmo]

Hi Paul

Yes they are totally inspired by Dave's work. Like Daves 8" , the aircraft- ply cage linings simply extend down through the base plate and turn very smoothly. Its great to see simple ideas for Newt binoscopes catching on , much like the original Dob concept. I have a 14" F4.5 Binewt in the pipeline, and I reckon these will be the most fun you can have with both your feet still firmly on the ground :)

Mark

[[1ponders]]

It's a good thing really that there arent more of these size binoviewers around. Can you imagine how much trouble scope suppliers would have trying to sell any scope smaller than 16" after someone has looked through binos like that. :lol:

[Satchmo]

Yes they look pretty futuristic: I've never been into `white' for home made scopes but these look like some peice of equipment off the set of `2001 : A space Odyssey' ....



Paul has a monoscope with one of my mirrors, and the second mirror is in process now: its much harder to match a second mirror later than making too identical at the same time .

Mark

[Satchmo]

Thats a very good point. I built a pair of 8" Binewts in 1986 for Halleys Comet , and used them for 10 yrs before they simply wore out from bashing around on bush roads in the back of my van. I always used to say that if I had to chooe between the 8" Binewt and a 20 " mono on the Desert Island, I 'd go the Binewts because the experience had so much more of a feeling of quality viewing than just `brute force' of a larger monocular. I've done extensive testing of binoviewers against true binoculars and they are convenient but inferior in a number of ways . I like to think that the many binoviewers on the market are re-educating observers to think `two -eyes' and the hey- day of binocular Newtonians is yet to come ;)

Mark