I hope you get something out of this review as I did the test in -5 degree temp. Man it was cold!
Review Date: 31 May 2006 Time: 1:30 am Location: Snake Valley Equipment: Andrews 20x80 Triplet Binoculars, hand-held and mounted on EQ1
The Binocs: They come in an amazingly protective soft case with a separate inner case, so they are protected twice.
The Binocs appear to be very well constructed and are very sturdy. The 4 lens caps cannot fall off and protect the optics very well. The central mounting bar is more than sufficient and pivots smoothly with a balance adjustment screw that is easy to use.
There is nothing on these Binocs that is small or flimsy, so breakages and bits falling off just won’t happen. The casing is rubber giving excellent grip. The optics are Fully Broadband Multi-coated with a BAK4 Prism system. The Binocs are fairly heavy hand-held which necessitates mounting.
The Dioptic eyepiece is smooth and adjustment is easy. The soft rubber eyecups are comfortable around the eyes and they fold down for use with glasses.
The interpupillary adjustment is also smooth and it stays put.
The Views: The first object I viewed was Jupiter. It appears extremely bright with all 4 Galilean Moons being brighter than I have seen through any other instrument. The planet was a perfect disc and even through the brightness and the small size I could still see banding. The moons were perfect dots. As far as CA, it is only very faintly noticeable on the planet itself and I had to struggle to see it. It is practically non-existent on such a bright object.
Then I moved up to the Carina region. The views were spectacular with perfect pin-point stars and light and dark bands of Nebula quite evident. Star clusters within Carina were easily resolved and the smaller chunks of Nebula were standing out quite bright. The 80mm objectives gather a lot of light.
I noticed how the starfield was pin-point across the entire FOV. I could not find any CA on any objects in the Carina Region.
Impressions: My impression of these Binoculars is very favourable. All moving parts work smoothly, the optics are of high quality and the views are spectacular. The only downfall is their weight after about 2 minutes, which is simply rectified by mounting them.
I know I will use them regularly simply because their Widefield view is spectacular.
Thanks fo the review Ken I have a pair the same, and from under very dark skies they are pretty damn good for the price, but they arent so good back in my light polluted skies.
re CA Ken, point at the full moon next time its about, and tell me what you think of the CA then
PS I have read that these binocs go out of alignment/collimation very easily, I have yet to experience this! although i dont use them very much (only on comets) and when i do use them - i am extremely gentle/careful with them, maybe thats all ya have to do?? there was great review of these by MHodson in these forums, and a how to on recollimating too. (they are easy to readjust the prisms with adjustment screws under the rubber)
They look good on the EQ mount. You might need to knock up a special binocular cradle, so you can lay back in a lazyboy type chair and you w'nt get a sore neck.
"interpupillary adjustment " had to get the dictionary for that one Ken
Nice review tooo.
With respect to CA it exhiits heap on the moon, purple fringing at the top and Green within the bright limb, BUt that is very bright. Everything else is spot on Mate!
I've got the 20x80s too and have been very happy with them. A bit of variation across the field of view but overall, very good value. I initially built a parallelogram mount out of aluminium tubing but still got a stiff neck from bending back when looking at the zenith. I then came across a light reclining camping chair and built a swivelling base and support arm for the binoculars. The "contraption" is very comfortable and takes only a moment to set up.
will add to this review, that my mate has an old pair of german made 20x80's, maybe from late '70's early '80's - They were quite expensive to buy once, at a guess well over a thousand dollars in the 90's. cant remember the brand now.
But we compared the triplets and his side by side on tripods at a dark site this year, and the view was identical through both, and i mean identical fov everything, it was like stereo, stereo vision!
I would need to be a contortionist.
