Andrews 20*80 triplet binos

[Lee]

Picked up a pair of these baby's last week - one word - awesome. Especially for the price....

I bought them based on some reading from here, and had never seen them in the flesh - I was expecting something large... but crikey! For an accurate simulation people - hold two full champagne bottles up - same size and weight!

The views are great, from the few quick looks I've had - sharp, high contrast, very nice pinpoint stars. Resolved Jupiter to a disc (a small one mind you!). Blows away my other 50mm binos for sure.

I've only a cheapo camera tripod, which precariously holds them at the moment (forget handholding!) - I'm waiting for the binos to torque the camera mounting plate right off of the tripod... may have to look at a decent tripod to use now.

For $200 I don't think you can go wrong - this is now my grab n go scope - I'm also starting to think that a pair of these would give you two great finderscopes too..... :thumbsup:

Couldn't resist a pic.... you can't go wrong with the Bimbadgen sparkling shiraz either! :drink:

[dugnsuz]

Nice one Lee,
I've got the smaller cousin - 15x70s.
I've found these "cheap" Chinese binos to be absolutely fabulous darling!
And, I can had hold mine - just!!!! I hate tripod hugging and neck strain.
Cheers
Doug

[ballaratdragons]

Cool Lee.

Another member in the 20x80 Triplet Club :thumbsup:

Yep, they are big and give stunning contrasty views :)

[astroron]

They look and sound terrific:eyepop: Did you have that bottle on hand or go and buy it just to show and then drink.:rofl: :thumbsup:

[Lee]

No, had it here..... it's a great Hunter Valley drop.....

[sheeny]

Congratulations!

I've had my AOE 20x80 triplets for few weeks now, and they're great for the money. I still haven't made dew shield/light baffles for mine yet, but I intend to. Just need to source some PVC pipe with an inside diamter >101.5mm and we'll be away.

I did build a rough and ready balanced cantilever mount like one I saw on here somewhere, but I found it wasn't much better than hand holding. I need to build a parallelogram mount.

BTW if you want to try handholding them, support the binos with your hands around the objective ends. It's not perfect but it is acceptable for short viewing periods.

Al.

[Lee]

Hadn't thought of a dew shield for them - sounds like a good idea. I had big problems with my Pentax binos a couple of weeks ago with dew - funnily enough my 10*50 Andrews binos right next to them had no problems at all.... and generally perform a lot better (for less than half the price mind you).

Handholding is OK I guess (just OK!) for a few minutes, then as your arms shake the view is impossible, the problem with holding at the objective end is the focuser is at the eyepiece end....

Great bang for buck these bad boys.......... I'm very impressed so far. Will be nice to use them at a dark site and see how they go too.....

[sheeny]

I agree totally, Lee!

I have three nasty street lights surrounding my place, hence my need for some dew shield / light baffles to kill the internal reflections as much as the dew!

Al.

[janoskiss]

I've got a pair of the 20x90s (from AOE). These big binos are great but mounting them is a problem. There is nothing satisfactory available off the shelf. They're good with camera tripods only for terrestrial/near-horizon viewing.

[Lee]

Yes, observing at any altitude is a pain with a camera tripod - really with anything with binos unless you are laying on the ground! Need aspirin for neck cramps afterwards.

[beren]

This may help http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_binm.htm

[Lee]

That looks great - anyone seen/heard of these locally???? Would grab one tomorrow.....

[h0ughy]

was that all th bits including the extension adapter or just the 2d head?

[beren]

Its been a while Houghy but I'm sure it came with the extension as displayed in the Pic.....Lee Scope-stuff are pretty good with orders/deliveries :)

[jmb]

Hi
this info was given to me by Seeker...so i pass it on to you...may be just what you are looking for...
i have the mirror just trying to work out the rest...
but it will sort out...i guess!!!
:hi:

[acropolite]

Don't be afraid to order from scopestuff, they are very good to deal with.

[Lee]

Not afraid - just prefer local if possibile due to less shipping, less delivery time (I'm impatient!).... saying that thinkgeek.com delivered some t-shirts to me in 5 days from order..... was impressed!

[TidaLpHasE]

:thumbsup:They look great Lee, as mentioned Scopestuff is a pleasure to deal with.
I have bought twice with them and could not fault their service if i tried to.:)

[sheeny]

Thanks for the link Beren!

I just ordered some!

Al.

[jmb]

oops sorry about that, forgot to attach the links:lol: :lol:


http://www.craigcolvin.com/Astronomy...larMirror.html (http://www.craigcolvin.com/Astronomy/BinocularMirror.html)

http://users.indytel.com/~rnabholz/downbino/index.html

http://www.fvas.net/bino.html