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

Best binocular for outer space? (1 Viewer)

R

ronh

Well-known member
Here's an interesting web tidbit I wandered upon. A photo of Soyuz 5 commander Sergei Zalyotin, tending a plant growth experiment in the Zvezda service module.
http://www.expeditionexchange.com/omega/iss005e20309.jpg
Notice the Trinovid (said to be an 8x42) velcro'd to the wall. Guess it doesn't take much to hold it in zero gravity!

There's also a Zeiss image stabilizing 20x60 on board, for those really, really, really distant shore birds and raptors.
Ron
 
If it's good for outer space..

I hear it's very expensive to take things up there. So if they got it there 10 years ago, it will likely stay there always.

I also saw another pic where they had a MagLite flashight, apparently one of the older incan ones. The newer LED generation is 10x brighter and draws 10x less energy but they cannot justify getting a better light out there.

I think it's safe to assume the Trinovid will outlive the space station.
 
I believe the first commercial binocular selected for US space flights was the Bushnell 7x26, to be employed as a secondary sighting system for Gemini (c. 1965-66). I've attached a copy of the flier distributed with the instrument. Space was truly at a premium in those days.
 

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etc said:
If it's good for outer space..

I hear it's very expensive to take things up there. So if they got it there 10 years ago, it will likely stay there always.

I also saw another pic where they had a MagLite flashight, apparently one of the older incan ones. The newer LED generation is 10x brighter and draws 10x less energy but they cannot justify getting a better light out there.

I think it's safe to assume the Trinovid will outlive the space station.
Click to expand...

Well, they call the Trinovid "The Brick" and the Shuttle, the "Flying Brick," so perhaps it could survive the space station's eventual deorbit with some shuttle tiles wrapped around the binocular and the same heat-resistant material on a flotation strap, with a pop-out parachute. Leica would have one heck of an advertising ploy if it survived.

Perhaps they can test its thermal and pressure resistance by taking it out on a space walk. :)

Since it cost $10,000 per pound to launch an object into space 10 years ago, this Trinovid is more expensive than Leica's new $5,000 spotting scope. Talk about "astronomical" prices!

Brock
 
Do you think that Leica would honor the replacement "Passport" warranty if they left the binocular on the space station bringing back only the part with the serial number on it claiming that the rest of the binocular burned up on reentry with the space station?|:D|
Bob
 
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ronh said:
Although it's not a clear concept in zero gravity, you'd have to say it's sticking "up".
Ron
Click to expand...
"Up" not a clear concept in zero gravity? Try telling that to the first Essex girl in space (phnarr, phnarr). Oops, just realised your not British Ron. Mind you, I see "Essex girl" has an entry in Wikipedia (ooer).

Guess you're right, it is possible to look well groomed in space; consider me chastised. Must add though, imagining the facial expressions of cosmonauts/astronauts responding to a new recruit setting off a can of hairspray in a spacestation in zero gravity was something I found very tickling :-O
 
normjackson said:
"Up" not a clear concept in zero gravity? Try telling that to the first Essex girl in space (phnarr, phnarr).
Click to expand...

3:)

I now have an image in my mind of an Essex Girl astronaut, pushing a little astronaut in a 'space pram', and a 'fag' in her right hand.
 
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