Chuck, Binoculaars are a waste of time for those of us who have monocular vision. No amount of colimation can help that. That said, people tell me that there are advantages, and the arguements are logical, but I prefer to think that it is all in one's mind - my personal experience tells me that! hehehe! I have looked through binoculars up to 20 inch aperture. I can never tell the difference between them and just a regular scope (duh!). None the less, I am sure that the rest of you have succommed to the optical illusion of binocular vision. Brent (with tongue planted firmly in cheek) --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi Brent:
Interesting comments. Let me respond one by one:
Now my opinion is that binoculars are a waste of money - no use paying for the extra set of optics for redundancy,
I shared your opinion for years. Now, I feel that they have their niche, especially since I obtained a 70mm unit. Objects just barely visible in my 70mm and 80mm "finders" were much more easily seen the binocular, objects not detectable at all in the mono-scopes were seen in the bino. Even stars themselves: I detect a fraction of a magnitude gain in the binocular.
Of course, a slightly larger-aperture telescope would accomplish the same thing, but it's nice to not have to close one eye, wear an eyepatch, or mentally ignore the other eye's input if left open.
And it's been fun to observe all the same objects in a new way. I really have ignored the binocular since my formative years, so there's a bit of "freshness" to the experience.
The next day I looked carefully at them. They had partially aluminized objectives! I am still wrestling with why they would want big binos like that and then cut the light gathering power down by partially aluminizing the lenses.
I don't know the answer for sure; the man to ask would be Bill Cook (formerly ATMJ editor), who is a retired Navy Opticalman.
But I would guess that the large aperture is for resolving power (ID of distant ship's registration numbers or names), while the partial aluminization is because ship's binoculars are mostly intended for looking at targets at or near the horizontal, and solar glare off the water's surface could interfere with the observation, or be downright dangerous if the solar angle is extremely low. My 2 cents.
BTW, I always wait for folks to get their binos out of alignment. They suddenly become very inexpensive to purchase, and once I cut them in half, they perform well (for my purposes) without the extra weight of the other half.
That is the best reason to learn how to service your binocular. I've had units lose alignment over the years, and it's really a simple matter to re-collimate them; a collimator isn't required. There are even several popular books on the subject, though I learned the hard way. You don't sell your car for scrap when it needs a tune-up, do you? You know how to collimate your telescope, right? Why is a binocular any different? It isn't! Funny thing, but the cheapest units are usually the toughest to collimate...prisms cemented in place, cases glued-shut. Those truly ARE throw-away units, and wasted money.
But like you, I love an inexpensive source of finderscope and spotter optics. These last ten years, I've even discarded the case itself, and re-mounted the optics in proper, homemade 1.25" eyepiece barrels, and homemade objective cells turned on the mini-lathe.
If you like, I can bring some of those for you to look at at Binopalooza. Some people have called me a liar when I told them they are home-made! (I love it!)
I am interested in attending Binopaloza. Are you going to publish a map or instructions for the site?
Although I know how to get there, I can't recall the exit, or mileage from same.
If I could prevail upon Joe Bauman, our resident wordsmith, to repeat his most excellent description here on the list, I'd sure appreciate it!
Incredibly easy to find site.
Looking forward to seeing you there, Brent. It's been far too long since I've joined you under the stars.
Chuck
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