Early Xmas present 20x80 binoculars

[johnno]

Hi All,
My Dear wife bought me a pair of 20x80 Binoculars from A.O.E for Xmas,
Again Fantastic service from Raff,
The Binoculars were ordered on Tuesday,but Raff,couldn,t send them out that day,as I asked him to check collimation etc,and he needed to star test them.
I received an email on wednesday,saying the binoculars were posted,and they arrived today.
I thought,given that the postal service usually slows down around Xmas,Australia post did a good Job.
I have been busy since the Binoculars arrived,Fitting them to a tripod,and attaching a Red dot Finder,
Of course its been cloudy here all night,so I cant even have a look through them.Damn.
Hopefully I have attached a couple of photos,of the mounted on the tripod.
They are the lightweight model,but I think The tripod is not quite up to the task.
I will post some impressions of them when the clouds clear,
Probably some time next year.
Merry xmas.
John

[janoskiss]

Nice one!
I think you're right about the tripods needing an upgrade though. Ask your dear wife too put one under the tree. :D
Yes, the AOE folk are terrific. It's another shop we could do with in Melbourne.

[johnno]

Hi Steve,
Yes,IMHO A.O.E are great,not only because they take the time to answer questions,but also offer friendly helpful advice,and check your binoculars,or whatever,BEFORE they send it out.This is now my third pair from them.
As for my tripod.
I have found, its not so much the tripod thats the problem,its the looong barrels on the binoculars themselves,causing vibrations,I have since cured most of the problem,by mounting the binos lower down,on the mounting bracket.
I use a piece of Aluminium angle 25mm wide,and 6mm thick,( bought from a local engineering firm for about $3.00),which you would think, would be quite ok,except I mounted the binos,right at the top,of the vertical section,which allowed a fair amount of flexing.
By mounting lower down this flexing is quite reduced,so although I agree,my Dear wife(hope she reads these nice words),should put a new heavy duty tripod also under the tree,I think if I push it too much,I might end up under a tree in the backyard.
Merry Xmas to you and yours.
regards.
John

[fringe_dweller]

Enjoy John! they are the triplets i assume? - got the same ones - great value i reckon :)

[johnno]

Hi Mate,

Mine are the lw version,I was a bit worried about the extra weight of the Triplets,and rightly so,these,with their long barrels take a little time to settle,I find if I hold a little down pressure on them,they are much more stable.
I got them yesterday,and of course it was cloudy all night.
I had a look at M42,tonight and they are AWESOME,I could actually see there are 2 stars in what I thought was only 1 star on the left.
I have just done a little checking on Starry Nights,and believe this star to be called Trapezium 1a,
well with my new 20x80s I can just see the tiny star to the left of the main one.
I am very,very happy with them.

Merry Xmas.
John