[Dave882 (David)]

Well I managed to track down a second hand pair of Denkmeier 1 Binoviewers from the CN forums a couple months ago and finally got round to piecing it together with a pair of Baader Mk3 zooms and my deforked 10" LX50 on the trusty CGEM mount. Plenty of incentive this last week with Saturn & Jupiter nice and high and a Sydney lockdown!

So after spending a bit of time tweaking the collimation, trying to work out the best backspacing, and about 30min learning how to position my eyes and adjust the focus etc it was time to see if all that effort and anticipation was worth it.

One word...WOW!

I was expecting a bit of an improvement from a mono eyepiece, but this was really something else. I started on Jupiter and at 200x had a great view of the red spot, and even some detail within the red spot, equatorial and temperate belts, as well as some of the other minor storms (need to read up more about all the different features). The moons were clear and i reckon i almost could have seen some detail if the seeing allowed.

Next over to Saturn - and clear view of the Cassini division, and good colour in the surface bands. Clear view of the major moons too.

Was really outstanding, and although the seeing wasn't good enough to push higher magnifications, the longer I looked, it seemed the more my eyes adjusted I could glean even more detail. Because both eyes are in use, I didn't need to take a break so this became quite rewarding. Even when the seeing deteriorated, the detail was still better compared to a single eye.

Looked at my phone and it was 2am... not quite sure where 5hrs just went (with no eye fatigue at all). Just totally engrossed with the views, honestly almost like seeing it all for the first time. And yes was out the next 4 nights straight too.

Honorable mention to the CGEM that just chugged along with all that extra weight hanging so far off the back and just does everything i ask of it without complaining.

I did try a few globs and open clusters as well and was a bit disappointed with how dim they came up. Not sure whether that was my inexperience or choice of eyepiece or perhaps this is better for one eye.

A couple of quick question for any experienced bino folk out there:
1) Do you have a particular method for focusing? I found myself doing rough focus with the telescope and adjusting both eyepiece holders individually for fine focus but seemed to be chasing perfect focus almost all night.
2) Collimation with or without the binos?
3) Any DSOs you can get good views and what eyepieces do you prefer?

Well- time to get some sleep. ProjectPluto has the GRS back in view on Tuesday night so you know where I'll be...

Dave