Doug and Steve
Sorry I have been away travelling on work for the last couple of days.
I couldn't find a source for a reasonably priced first surface mirror here in Australia..
The closest I could do was to source some optical quality glass from a local glass dealer who i found in the yellow pages and then get it silvered at Astro Opticals, it was still pricey and the hassle didnt seem worth it
There is a company who makes first surface mirrors-Lords(?)-I think in Sydney-can't remember the name-but even the price for an offcut was more expensive than getting an FS mirror from the US-despite the postage when I checked-this was a couple of years ago though.
However: for binos around 7 x 50s -get your FS mirrors from Surplus Shed in the US
they cost US $3 each ! even with postage it is still very cheap.Service is great and they don't mind small orders-will even ship it by sea if you ask them to (and are willing to wait for your purchases to arrive) . Its a terrific ATM resource. Here's the link again:
http://www.surplusshed.com/
However the FS mirrors they usually stock are too small to use with binos larger than 50 mm-(and dont even try to use two mirrors-just thinking about it gives me a headache)
Doug I couldnt agree more with your views on these inexpensive binos. I have a pair of 11 x 70s from Andrews and they absolutely rock-and they cost $119 I think.I particularly like the long eye relief--for the first time I can observe with my glasses on.
Narayan
PS And Steve,... re the AS&T pic...thanks!
