Poita
03-08-2011, 09:24 AM
I'll start out by saying I'm not qualified to review anything, but a beginner's perspective can sometimes be useful to others starting out.
I have three kids, and they really enjoy looking at the cosmos, however the younger ones always struggle with looking with just one eye (though a cheap 'Pirate eye-patch' has worked wonders).
I saw a Williams Optics Binoviewer for sale in the classifieds here, and missed it, but purchased one from the Williams Optics website for $205 shipped to Australia. With it including a pair of 20mm eyepieces, it is ready to use.It arrived 6 days after ordering via international mail.
Unboxing:
It was well packed, double boxed in chicklets, with the inner box wrapped in bubble-wrap. The inner box was very nicely finished, with the internal foam inserts of a really high quality, the whole package gave off an air of quality, much more than I expected for the price.
Inclusions:
The binoviewer is *heavy* but feels well constructed, it also came with two 20mm eyepieces with rubber eye-cups and caps. It has a screw-in nosepiece 1.6x barlow, and is finished in White and Black, with nice large thumbscrews etc. The finish on it makes it look like a far more expensive piece of equipment.
Performance:
We had a night of unusually good seeing, I lined up the crescent moon with the old Celestron C8, and took a look with my standard 20mm celestron eyepiece.
We then popped the Binoviewer in the C8, and had a moment of panic as the the telescope suddenly swung downwards, due to the weight of the binoviewer!
We re-found the moon and focused with the included WO 20mm eyepieces.
Wow!
The difference of viewing with two eyes can not be understated, it was much more comfortable and the kids looked at the moon for *ages* commenting on all the crater formations etc. Normally they will only look for about a minute or two, but we spent half an hour perusing the thin sliver available to us. The youngest (3yrs) was very excited and kept wanting to take another look, and she normally isn't interested as I think she struggles with the single eyepiece.
It was easily adjusted for the spacing of my eyes, my partners, and the children. It smoothly and easily adjusts like a pair of good quality binoculars.
We swung the scope around to Saturn (my finder scope is broken, so it took me 5 minutes to sweep around the sky till I found it). Again, the view through two eyes was great, the rings were unusually sharp and clear, it happened to be a good night.
The kids spent another half hour relating details to each other and re-observing.
We managed to find a couple of DSOs after much trawling of the sky (must get a new finder!) and they came through faint, but lovely. Switching back to one eye without the binoviewer and they seemed harder to see. Probably just something psychological about gathering light into both eyes?
Optics:
I can't really comment here, I'm not experienced with any other binoviewers and this was really just a casual viewing.
The included eyepieces are better than the 20mm that came with the Celestron, the stars were pinpoint and sharp, and the views of the moon and Saturn were nicely focused and contrasty.
On the C8 when saturn or the moon went to the bottom edge of the view, there was an issue with a 'ring of light' suddenly appearing in the view, but objects in the middle didn't have this issue.
I had no problem achieving focus in the C8, with or without the included barlow.
Wrap-up.
It is great value, 2 reasonable 20mm eyepieces, binoviewer and barlow nosepiece for just over $200.
If you have kids or friends, just get one! It improves their enjoyment and comfort of viewing by a huge factor, my partner got right into it, and usually only takes a quick look. It looks and feels like a lovely piece of equipment and stores well protected in its padded box.
I found that I also observed for longer, as I was seated and comfortable with both eyes, and the pseudo 3D effect is very pleasing for long observations.
It probably isn't that fantastic optically for serious work, but it performed very well on my tired old gear.
I'd highly recommend it for a beginner, especially if you don't already have a 20mm or similar eyepiece. I'll be trying it out on an ED80 next week and let you know how it goes.
Hope this is useful.
I have three kids, and they really enjoy looking at the cosmos, however the younger ones always struggle with looking with just one eye (though a cheap 'Pirate eye-patch' has worked wonders).
I saw a Williams Optics Binoviewer for sale in the classifieds here, and missed it, but purchased one from the Williams Optics website for $205 shipped to Australia. With it including a pair of 20mm eyepieces, it is ready to use.It arrived 6 days after ordering via international mail.
Unboxing:
It was well packed, double boxed in chicklets, with the inner box wrapped in bubble-wrap. The inner box was very nicely finished, with the internal foam inserts of a really high quality, the whole package gave off an air of quality, much more than I expected for the price.
Inclusions:
The binoviewer is *heavy* but feels well constructed, it also came with two 20mm eyepieces with rubber eye-cups and caps. It has a screw-in nosepiece 1.6x barlow, and is finished in White and Black, with nice large thumbscrews etc. The finish on it makes it look like a far more expensive piece of equipment.
Performance:
We had a night of unusually good seeing, I lined up the crescent moon with the old Celestron C8, and took a look with my standard 20mm celestron eyepiece.
We then popped the Binoviewer in the C8, and had a moment of panic as the the telescope suddenly swung downwards, due to the weight of the binoviewer!
We re-found the moon and focused with the included WO 20mm eyepieces.
Wow!
The difference of viewing with two eyes can not be understated, it was much more comfortable and the kids looked at the moon for *ages* commenting on all the crater formations etc. Normally they will only look for about a minute or two, but we spent half an hour perusing the thin sliver available to us. The youngest (3yrs) was very excited and kept wanting to take another look, and she normally isn't interested as I think she struggles with the single eyepiece.
It was easily adjusted for the spacing of my eyes, my partners, and the children. It smoothly and easily adjusts like a pair of good quality binoculars.
We swung the scope around to Saturn (my finder scope is broken, so it took me 5 minutes to sweep around the sky till I found it). Again, the view through two eyes was great, the rings were unusually sharp and clear, it happened to be a good night.
The kids spent another half hour relating details to each other and re-observing.
We managed to find a couple of DSOs after much trawling of the sky (must get a new finder!) and they came through faint, but lovely. Switching back to one eye without the binoviewer and they seemed harder to see. Probably just something psychological about gathering light into both eyes?
Optics:
I can't really comment here, I'm not experienced with any other binoviewers and this was really just a casual viewing.
The included eyepieces are better than the 20mm that came with the Celestron, the stars were pinpoint and sharp, and the views of the moon and Saturn were nicely focused and contrasty.
On the C8 when saturn or the moon went to the bottom edge of the view, there was an issue with a 'ring of light' suddenly appearing in the view, but objects in the middle didn't have this issue.
I had no problem achieving focus in the C8, with or without the included barlow.
Wrap-up.
It is great value, 2 reasonable 20mm eyepieces, binoviewer and barlow nosepiece for just over $200.
If you have kids or friends, just get one! It improves their enjoyment and comfort of viewing by a huge factor, my partner got right into it, and usually only takes a quick look. It looks and feels like a lovely piece of equipment and stores well protected in its padded box.
I found that I also observed for longer, as I was seated and comfortable with both eyes, and the pseudo 3D effect is very pleasing for long observations.
It probably isn't that fantastic optically for serious work, but it performed very well on my tired old gear.
I'd highly recommend it for a beginner, especially if you don't already have a 20mm or similar eyepiece. I'll be trying it out on an ED80 next week and let you know how it goes.
Hope this is useful.