DSO-PROLONGED OBSERVING & the BINO View Option? BINO VIEW users welcomed!

[Davekyn]

It’s me again...I’m having a hard time to stop thinking about stargazing whilst the clouds are in abundance and I have a little time off work. SO:

I have been having a great time reading up on Deep Skies Observers Companion and am up to the part on prolonged observing. I pretty much understand what is being said about relaxing the muscles to avoid fatigue and minimising eye movement in order to obtain the best result from prolonged observing & was wondering how this technique would stand up with using a pair of Bino Views?

From what I can gather...the Key point to Prolonged Observing is to Minimise Eye Movement and the recommendation is not to tighten your non-observing eye, & in fact try using an eye patch to reduce the strain an otherwise clenched cheek may aquire over time.

I’ve never used a pair of bino views but was thinking if a set would yield good results with emphasis to “Prolonged Observing Techniques”? The only negative I may have read with regard to Bino View is that splitting the path of light from the eye pice into two “Dims” the object which would be counterproductive???

Could anyone comment on this...would I be better off with a set of Bino Views with respect to this? What are the benefits of owning a set of Bino Views? Is it worth it to enhance on DSO or better suited for bright objects only. I guess it could be good for picking up find details on the moon with the prolonged technique. Anyone own a pair out there?

[rmcpb]

With a 12" scope you will have plenty of light for most objects and then could go to single eye viewing for the fainter objects. I was out for a LONG time last night and this morning my observing eye felt like a disaster zone, a bit dried out. The main draw back with the bino viewer is that you have to buy twice the eyepieces and if you are into good eyepieces that can get really expensive.

You could try the eyepatch (I have lost mine) and make sure you blink lots to stop the drying out feeling.

Cheers

[Davekyn]

Sounds like a plan Rob...Gso plossels will do...I'll match the 20mm. I don't suppose you know the differences between the WO version & others for a hundred bucks cheaper? Not to worry, I'll search the forum.
Thanks Rob!

[AstroJunk]

Luckilly, the brain puts most of that light back together so the effect is much less.

Bino-viewers and binoculars do give an imersive view of the sky - especially those big globulars. The 3-D effect is of course just an illusion, but a very nice one never the less.

[erick]

Binoviewers might not pull focus without some adjustments (eg. adding a barlow or replacing focusser with a low profile one). They are heavy (binos, barlow, two eyepeices!) And I never liked cutting the light in half and sending to each eye - I want all the light I can get.

If you want true two eye viewing, here is the answer - Drool.............!!!

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=40838

[PCH]

Hi Davekyn,

I have a pair of the Stellarvue Binoviewers from Peter at SDM. They were reasonably priced at around $280 (ish), and are excellent quality. They come with a couple of extra bits that will ensure they come to focus in pretty much any focuser.

And boy was I glad I bought them. The views are simply stunning, and whilst they clearly aren't 3D, the views do have a quality which really brings out the depth of the item you're viewing somehow.

When choosing EPs, I'd caution against buying cheapies like the Bintel plossls. They may be ok for the money, but I bought a couple of pairs when they were on special for the Oberwerk BT100-45 binocs I bought recently, and was very unpleasantly surprised by the amount of colour introduced around bright targets. You might expect a bit since these binocs are supposed to be semi apos, but this was horrible. When I bought a couple of TV plossls, the problem pretty much vanished. So there is a difference.

But good luck with your choice. I'd love to see something like M31 through binoviewers on my 12" LB, but not much chance of that from Perth - unless someone can tell me otherwise !

Cheers :thumbsup:

[Satchmo]

The net effect in a high quality binoviewer ( ie Denk etc ) is the loss of about 0.5 magnitude stellar limiting magnitude which is effectively about 25% -33% of your mono aperture. This can mean more of an obvious loss of performance on fainter galaxies.

The more significant problem for DSO viewing is the loss of field of view in Newts as some sort of barlow lens is needed to bring focus.