Burgess Mag tripod & eyepieces

Bill Burgess was at Tri*star in Greensboro, yesterday. He was there showing off some new angled astro binos and some eyepieces.

I was interested in the supposedly magnesium tripod that he had the binoculars mounted on. I've been looking for something a little taller, and a little more stable than the Bogen 3221WN. Since the Burgess tripod looks a lot like a knockoff of a Bogen video tripod, and since it came with a pretty decent head similar to the Bogen 501, and since it came with 2 quick detach plates, all for a show price of $199, I bought one. I'll post a review of it somewhere, after I've had a chance to check it out with the Ranger.

I was disappointed that Bill only had demo eyepieces, and was simply taking orders for a shipment "to be delivered in 10 days". Being the sucker that I am, I went ahead and placed an order for a 17mm WA with 65* FOV for $39 and a 2" 32mm SWA with 72* FOV for $69. The fit and finish of the display eyepieces looked better than GTO, and I figured for those prices, with a 30 day return policy, I couldn't go too far wrong. We'll see. I'll give him 3wks to ship, but if I don't have them in hand by April Fool's day, I'll cancel.

Mike Swaim

When I asked him about how things were going filling the refractor orders, he just got silent. He did have one 127 there as a demo/prize. Similarly, I tried to draw him out about all his promises regarding the birding market. While he said that the birding market was really increasing his sales of small binoculars, he made no mention what-so-ever of the spotting scopes, and "ultimate" carbon fiber bodied binoculars that he promised a year and a half ago.

I mentioned to him that he could do a lot to improve his company's image by posting occasionally to this group, and he said that he didn't want to pay to be an Astromart sponsor just to read this group.

All in all, I'd say that our little exchange was much more strained, than when I've talked with him in the past.

Mike Swaim

Mike, I too have the mag tripod... I really liked it but have only compared it too normal photo tripods and the Orion plus tripod..

It will hold the 102 anywhere you want it no problem..

Looking forward to your review as I haven't seen any besides my own posted on the yahoo group.

Mark V

>>>>Being the sucker that I am, I went ahead and placed an order for a 17mm WA with 65* FOV for $39 and a 2" 32mm SWA with 72* FOV for $69. The fit and finish of the display eyepieces looked better than GTO, and I figured for those prices, with a 30 day return policy, I couldn't go too far wrong. We'll see. I'll give him 3wks to ship, but if I don't have them in hand by April Fool's day, I'll cancel.
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Last February, I was one of those "suckers" who figured a month wasn't too long to wait for a decent 102 mm scope. Delivery was promised in March....

Regarding the eyepieces, it will be interesting to see how these turn out. What design were they??

jon