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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Stargazing Binoculars advice (1 Viewer)

consider a tripod mounted pair of binoculars
-the steadyness greatly increases the quality of viewing, and allows for larger binoculars

then I would recommend 10 or 15-16 x 70

edj
 
Aperture crazy is merely a form of bin disease towit no cure is in sight. Get it?

I bought a 25x100 Apogee and dropped a C note rebuilding a heavy duty Samson friction mount from the 60's I guess. Collar was eighty as one of the bolts mount threads was busted. It's a dandy and now will allow full zenith w/me underneath.

Bigger is better, so I picked up a bottom of the barrel dreg Barska 45* 20/40x100. The bock beer, though not as tasty, of heavy bins, Exit pupils are so truncated they look like bak-7 save not nearly as symmetric. The 25x & 20x shows better view of stars though the 40 will eek out a little more detail, separate a close moon from Jupiter/split some stars.

The used Barska came w/Barska tripod that isn't tall enough past 65* to look through the 45* eyepieces w/o squatting. However it's much lighter and I can sit in a wooden planked lawn chair & view in the 65* to zenith range.

Anywho, I also use the 40/100 to spot birds & planes and just as I was about to come in I noticed a hawk high to the west w/good breeze coming out of the east. It was as if a kite suspended. I pulled the cover off and watched the hawk manipulate the wind w/wings allthewhile scanning terra firma for a morsel.

I could've done the same w/smaller glass, but not w/that detail or that close. Quite breathtaking & wouldn't have been able to pan smoothly if not for the used Bogen fluid mount that I picked up/mounted. Still, I enjoy handheld glass looking at stars, yet I'll never forget seeing M45 w/25x100 on the old Samson for the first time. As well, 20x100 on the lighter weight shorty tripod makes for nice star clusters.

There's a little fogbank/mist/clump of a zilion stars inside of M44, @ 40x, that I try to resolve another star(I can only snag 10) out of w/40X, yet the beehive cluster is more enjoyed @ 20X/25X.

I have to shoot between trees & limbs from the deck/back yard. If not for an aversion to cutting trees next to the house, and losing the shade from the south, I'd fire up that 6.5hp Swedish wood muncher and fell a half a dozen or so.

High magnifiction is better to a point and even a flimsy camera tripod from the seventies w/plastic adapter trumps handheld. Still, as in drag racing run what ya brung.
 
"Swift 804 Audubon HR5"

I tried mine against the 704 Holiday Mark II & though I like the extra 1.5X & coatings of the HR/5 during the day I found that I could hold the 7x35 w/more assurance.

The 11.4* helped ease the pang of multiplication lost.

Yesterday I was spotting more planes than birds. Watched an Airbus, about 60* vertical, overtake a passenger jet. I don't know how close they were, but they were both focused in the picture framed.

To the NW three jet & three twin prop cargos on maneuvers. They love to cruise the National Forest. The F-16 squadron out of Chaffee is 86'd and exchanged for a warthog wing.

Around that time of day the air is bit crowded. Passenger jet low ascending and so close I can't hardly find it in the 40X. When I do it's filling up right at 3/4 of the FOV.

{Field of View (ft@1000yds/m@1000m) 131/43.8@20x, 63.9/21.3@40x}

I think I saw a stew wave.

At night, a little farther away, I can see the cockpit and windows lit up.

Saw a few Turkey buzzards and crows & then whilst training the Holiday on a yellowtailed/belly bird w/black mask around it's eyes one of his buds, more directly above in the same oak, left me a small token of his appreciation.

Obviously I'm etiquette challenged and somewhat the cad bumping me own thread. Typical brash Americano bravado I suppose.
 
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Thank you Nixterdemus.
I found on many forums, including here and allbinos review, that swift porros were great for the price.
The problem is that in France you cannot find this brand... Same goes with vortex, only one found at a weapondealer.
 
I see a few listed from your neighbors about 26 miles north of the English Channel on auction sites. I figured there would be a few there as you're much closer than being on the other side of the pond.

There's always the chunnel for a quick jaunt.

Yesterday I'm worming a couple of nanny goats and I hear an odd suction sound. I look north & see nothing for a moment, yet I know this peculiar sound is coming from that general direction.

A private jet comes into view around 1,200' up and 1/3 of a mile over. I didn't have any glass on me, nor did I require any. He's so low & slow in his ascent that once clear of the small 40 acre lake/pond that I can't see it for the trees.

Later I watched some black vultures soaring and a lone hawk on the prowl. The temperature made 85*. I'm switching to 20X on the tripod as the wind is gusting & it's far easier to locate the target & maintain it within the FOV.

It's a shame that the cheap design prohibts using any other eyepieces. As if it would've killed them to use 1.25". If the optical path was true, the prisms large enough & properly aligned I think 30X would be the best for me. The 40X is hard to be smooth, even w/fluid mount, and the 20X is not as close as I'd like.

But, I suppose for the price I've no room for complaint. The 25X bin is a better view except 45* eyepieces on the other have spoiled me. I grow weary of looking up through the regular binoculars.

Good luck in finding what you want.
 
Must have been nice.
I wanted to buy a year ago, a binocular head to adapt to my little apo (80 aperture). This must be great to use some 15x-50x. I however never looked through a binoc head.
 
I haven't looked through a bino head either as I'm using the so called giant binoculars mounted to an old friction head/mount & a newer, but older model Bogen, fluid head/mount.

I don't have a telescope and these binoculars, one 25x100 & the other 20 or 40x100, are nice for star clusters, Jupiter & the four familiar moons as they continue to move away along w/terrestrial subjects.

The 40X is nice in bright sunlight especially on birds that aren't flying, but due to truncated pupils I guesstamate that I might be seeing 2mm of the 2.5 available. The 20x shows a real clean/vivid pic that enables me to follow fast flying birds, but doesn't have quite the "wow" effect of 40X even though combining 40X panning on a fast moving bird does give up some detail.

The used 25x100 Apogee I lucked into as I knew nothing much about the larger binoculars and this one arrived collimated w/nice round EP. It comes close to resolving as much as the 40X. It'll still be edged out and cannot separate bodies quite as well, however in looking at Pleiades star cluster the Apogee view @ 25X is much more enjoyable than the Barska @ 20X.

Since the Barska has exchangeable eyepieces I marked the one 20 & 40 that worked the best w/right side as that is my best eye. It took a while to figure that out & the right side resolves better than the left.

Besides being nice that this budget astro/long distance bin has 20x & 40x is the 45* turrets. A much more comfortable view. Also, I can place the shorter 40x in the left side & the longer 20x in the right side and alternate as a double power spotting scope, but the true binocular view w/100mm for each eye is a very relaxed view.

Still, I'd like to have the next step up, using 1.25" standard, where I could buy better quality eyepieces. Garrett offers a giant binocular in your choice of two different magnification w/highest being 28X I believe, I would be tempted to pick up a used one if nothing else to compare the view.

However, even though the Apogee circa 2003 is optically cleaner than the Barska it still has one side that resolves better than the other. Both are great in the daylight if CA doesn't bother you & they're acceptable for viewing close space objects. The tripod & the head they mount on makes a world of difference. Moving off the old deck & on the yard helps w/vibration on 40X.

Anywho, 20/25/40x100 will not provide the sweeping view of a wide angle 7x35, but it's not designed for such. And you have to have them on a tripod, so moving them around can be cumbersome. They're good for looking at the moon/close up of clusters, birds perched in trees from 70' to 100yds or so, on the wing riding the wind or soaring.

They are a little more expensive than a modest set of bins, but buying used I have less than a grand in the two bins & tripods combined. Good luck in your search.
 
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