New binoviewers coming.

I have some new bino viewers coming, they were given to me as an unexpected gift. I forget what make they are (that seems the safest way to handle things :-) ). I have a 16" sonotube Discovery and an SV 85mm. The only pair of eyepieces I have are Orion Sirrius 25mm, leftover from previous Orion scope purchases. (They have different colored coatings, but they looked good in my friends XXXXX binoviewers).

Anybody have suggestions on what pairs would be good with my scope? I have Pentax XL's and a narrow IP distance. Since these are not easily available and would probably be too far apart from me, I will not be pairing up on these. The brand is not as important to me as your suggestions for focal length.

Thanks

Michael

Michael,

Try the 25mm's and see if they work. That is all I used for my first few weeks of binoviewing. Then I added a pair of 32mm GTO plossls (good), a pair of 9mm Expanses(bad) and a pair of 25mm Orion Epics (no better than the 25mm plossls). Then I went for a pair of 24 Pans and they were very nice, but the 32mm and 25mm plossls were an 80% solution. Then I found orthos and bought a bunch of them. That's where I would go. Get a few pairs of orthos at your favorite focal lengths and enjoy them. They seem less orthoish when they are paired up in binoviewers and they can't be beat in image quality. I'm replacing my orthos with type 6 Naglers, but I'm not in a big hurry.

Here's a page I put together on why I have what I have:

http://www.tomhole.com/Oculars%20Filters%20Etc.htm

Scroll down to life after binoviewers.

Have fun with whatever brand you have. We act like children, but I think we all agree that binoviewing is better than cyclops viewing.

Clear skies,

Tom

Tom has a great article there.
Sooner or later, I reckon you'll want a pair that gives you the maximum field of view you can get in the 1.25" format. These include the 24mm Panoptic, 24.5mm Meade SWA, 23mm Celestron Axiom, 30mm Takahashi LE and 30mm Ultrascopic/Ultima. Some use the 32mm TV ploessl or 35mm Ultima, but these have wierd eye relief problems (too long) and do not actually give any wider field. Many people end up using this wide field pair the most, because you are more likely with a binoviewer to use a barlow/corrector for higher powers than to switch out eyepieces.

Michael,

Come on.. Say the brand.. You can't sit on the fence forever!

OK, Seriously.. 24mm is probably as low a power as you will use without any vignette effect. With the SV85mm you will need some type of optical corrector, but a cheap Barlow will work so you can get a feel for what you are looking for. The Sonotube will probably need a barlow also.

I found when I first started out with binoviewers I was very happy with very cheap Plossls.

I later upgraded to Televue Plossls and now I just closed a deal for a second 12mmT2 Nagler and I have a set of premium 22.5mm lenses on order. I am also looking at a pair of 15mm Panoptics...

Michael, Save yourself a small fortune and smash the binoviewers to bits right now...

Don't listen to him Michael!

OK, Once again Seriously.. Start off with some cheap Plossls, 15mm, 17mm, 20mm. You can get along with the pair of Orion 25mms for awhile. Use a X2 Barlow with them. You will be happy with the view.

Don Durbin

I will probably get nailed for promoting vaporware,but if you are not in too big a hurry and can wait for the developement of the zoom OCA you could save some money on eyepiece pairs. Regardless of the binoviewer you own the zoom OCA will work with it as it is intended to be universally compatible. You have not mentioned any eyerelief
issues related to your Pentax purchase so I would have to vote for a pair of 24mmPans for starters.
Welcome to the world of two-eyed astronomy. Scotty

Thanks guys for all the suggestions. The binoviewers were already ordered for me. Don, I guess I can get off the fence, let's see, I'm not sure how to spell them. The brand starts with Se...no Te...thats not right either, De...no I guess I can't remember. Oh well.

Lots of good info, thanks much.

Michael