Excelsis - Display Vote

Black Night Binoviewer

Finally got a chance to try out the Black Knight binoviewer. used a 10" LX200GPS and the included eyepieces (21mm?). I'm amazed; after switching over to 2" eyepieces I'm gonna need to pick up some 1.25" pairs. This thing works! Mediocre skies tonight and I didn't wait for it to get very dark. I used Polaris to get it focused and spaced; sky was so bad I couldn't see the companion - until I opened both eyes - there it is! Can't see it with either eye but with both it's as it looks on a good night at that power. Went to Jupiter. Views not great there either but with both eyes the cloud bands reveal details I can't see with either eye alone. I know this thing isn't magic but my brain really wants input from both eyes and it does more with what it gets that way.

The "8" rating is because I had objectionable reflections off-axis on Jupiter - might just be the eyepieces, might be because I didn;t bother to use a dew shield. I'll try it again on a better night and different eyepieces and if the reflections go away I'll make a followup post.

John

Overall Rating: 9
Performance:8 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date: 04/29/2003 11:29:35 am PST
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.124.149)
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=228258

Oops! I posted a followup to this explaining that the refections were not caused by the bino viewer but by the eyepieces I was using. I just noticed that I wasn't logged in at the time and my followup shows as "anonymous".

It's me - the eyepieces were the problem!

John

>The "8" rating is because I had objectionable reflections off-axis on Jupiter - might just be the eyepieces, might be because I didn;t bother to use a dew shield. I'll try it again on a better night and different eyepieces and if the reflections go away I'll make a followup post.
>
--Followup--

I had the opportunity to try Jupiter again with different eyepieces and it turned out that those were the problem; no ghost images even without a dew shield with different oculars. Harry's gonna replace the eyepieces for me.

John

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