Just out of curiosity, would these lenses work in binoculars?
Daniel...
It's a very expensive exercise Daniel. If you place two 102mm objectives together in their tubes the centres would probably be around 120mm apart (allowing for the thickness of the cells). Your eyes are usually around 65-75mm apart (your inter-pupillary distance or IPD). Therefore you'd need to bend the light paths in after they exit the rear of the scopes and then angle them upward via two diagonals so that the images don't rotate in relation to one another. This is where it gets expensive, because you need what are called "amici" prisms to do this. There is a guy in Japan who makes them for this purpose and they cost around US$1,200.
It's a very expensive exercise Daniel. If you place two 102mm objectives together in their tubes the centres would probably be around 120mm apart (allowing for the thickness of the cells). Your eyes are usually around 65-75mm apart (your inter-pupillary distance or IPD). Therefore you'd need to bend the light paths in after they exit the rear of the scopes and then angle them upward via two diagonals so that the images don't rotate in relation to one another. This is where it gets expensive, because you need what are called "amici" prisms to do this.
Cool, thanks for the info.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omaroo
There is a guy in Japan who makes them for this purpose and they cost around US$1,200.
Now I'm really kicking myself .
For several years I had an old binocular microscope that I dug up in a tip. Cleaned it up, made a stand and borrowed some eyepieces from our environmental officer (a rather attractive young lady ) to look at dead mossies (the best kind) and things that crawl around in sewage sludge. When retired about 14 months ago I gave it to one of my workmates. GUESS WHAT WAS INSIDE IT, 2 AMICI PRISMS
I just got my 102/600 lens in the post today. It looks good, especially the coatings. Of course, Melbourne is covered in a thick layer of cloud in consequence of its delivery so I cannot even try it in tubeless mode.
Expecting mine sometime next week, UPS and Aus Post willing. Got the focuser, rings and finderscope bracket ready. Looking forward to putting it all together. The 80mm has been named "Rainmaker", our 1600ltr rainwater tank went from empty to full in 3 days, just hoping its big brother doesn't keep up the family tradition
Expecting mine sometime next week, UPS and Aus Post willing. Got the focuser, rings and finderscope bracket ready. Looking forward to putting it all together. The 80mm has been named "Rainmaker", our 1600ltr rainwater tank went from empty to full in 3 days, just hoping its big brother doesn't keep up the family tradition
Bill
Get another tank installed to soak up the extra Bill
We did think about that Chris, but everytime we take a bit out of the tank it rains just enough top it up again. Its still full!
Been a weird summer my lady says.
I now know exactly what the correlation (& indeed the causation) is. The moment I take my beautiful new lens out of its box, it starts to rain in Melbourne. It has done so for the past two days.
I am still tossing up tube materials (PVC, aluminium are the main starters). I built my 80mm one from an Australia Post mailing tube which was perfect, but the extra heft of this one requires something a bit more solid.
I tried a piece of PVC and the lens doesn't fit. the internal measurement of a 10cm pipe is 10.3cm and the lens mounting unit measurement is 12.3cm. Without too much effort I managed to widen a 10cm pipe to almost 11cm by heating it until it softened and while it was still soft I pushed a cylindrical object in and let the pipe cool down. Getting it out was a bit of a bugger but if you use plywood disks then you can hammer them out without too much damage. Once you take the object out, the pipe is still round just wider. By the way this should be done outside as the pipe does smell when heated and I don't know what chemicals are let out when heating a PVC pipe. I also thought about stretching the pipe to 11.3cm and cutting grooves in the tube so that I can fit the assembly in, but I don't know if this will work. Just a thought. By the way I am going to try and get the pipe to 12cm before I look at other tubes.
I was thinking about putting the PVC pipe inside the cell. The inner diameter of the lower side is 109mm, and there is a nice ridge for the pipe to butt up against. The pipe I saw in Bunnings was almost exactly 109mm outer diameter.
I was also thinking off this. It's a tight fit but I think it will do the job. (see pictures).The white fitting is available at Bunnings also. If you glue the pipe to the white fitting using plumbers glue it will stay on for ever.
I played around with some thin alum sheet last night, & was able to roll a tube. It is an interference fit into the back of the lens cell. I'll rivet it in once I have painted, flocked & baffled the tube. You can see the ridge it butts up against in the photo of the back of the cell.
Still lots of work to do, but I was able to assemble it temporarily & get a star test (hand held) with a few eyepieces (20mm Antares & an Ethos). The images looked great; I think these lenses are going to make great RFTs.
. The 127's didn't last long, both out of stock.
) to look at dead mossies (the best kind) and things that crawl around in sewage sludge. When retired about 14 months ago I gave it to one of my workmates. GUESS WHAT WAS INSIDE IT, 2 AMICI PRISMS 
