[DobDobDob (Ron)]

Hi, I am a beginner like you, I have owned my 20x80 only 1.5 weeks and only had two observing sessions due to Sydney's cloudy skies lately. By reading the replies below I can tell you what I have learned and it is echoed by many other people on nearly every website you visit.

On the first night I mounted my nice bins on a scabby tripod that cost $130.00, I used it once and then promptly took them back to the store and asked for the strongest tripod in the store, they sold me these enormous three-legged monster like a surveyors tripod, the ones you see the blokes measuring the streets with.

I haven't used then yet because they did not have the adapter for the top which joins the tripod to the bins, so I am waiting for that, which should arrive this Thursday.

Another lister wrote an inspiring piece about selecting your first telescope, and included a bit on bins and the recurring theme throughout this gem was, "it's all about the mount".

Well with just hours more experience than you I can already tell you that trying to hold 20x80's is impossible, trying to have them on top of a crappy and somewhat unstable cheap tripod is just a waste of time. The entire thing has to remain stable and be easy to move the bins around with a minimum of force.

My crappy tripod, when moved sideways even the smallest fraction would set the thing bouncing all over the place, it took minutes to make sure it was still, there was no hope of trying to hold it and focus in whilst onto of this crummy tripod.

It was my fault, the shop had many different types and sizes and of course old el-cheapo Tailwag went for the cheapest, and I do mean they were cheap, cheap and nasty.

So the info you are getting is right IMHO, the mount can cost more than the actual binoculars and that's okay, you are not being ripped off, you will be glad you spent the extra to never have to go through what I did that first and last night.

Good luck which way you go, but remember to mount it in a sturdy fashion, or stay inside and drink coffee and watch House on the tube.