an evening with the big binos in Wicklow

Thnaks for the reply John! I'm thinking of getting a pair of Helios 15 x 80mm binos, I was just interested in what sort of tripod would be needed for these.

I'll check out ebay! Good Observing!
Keith..

John, just one more question if you don't mind, I'm thinking of buying the 20x90mm binos from strathspey today, how do you find the 4.5mm exit pupil?

Do you think it's too small for night time observing?
Thanks,
Keith..

hi Keith,

just saw your post now. I had seen the query on Cloudy Nights as well but forgot to come back over to the IFAS board.

20x90mm is an excellent choice. Exit pupil in my case (40 this year!) will never match my youth but in terms of DSOs, I've had better performance so far from my old 20x60mm (3mm exit pupil) than with the 22x100mm binoculars . . . that's more a testiment to the fact that I've not had the same quality skies to test the binos on. I think that although the recommended exit pupil is between 5mm and 7mm, with a smaller exit pupil it paradoxically isn't a major point for DSOs in binoculars. What you need is the aperture. The performance on open clusters with the 90mm to 100mm range of binoculars is astounding.

best of luck with the Strathspey's. John, the guy over there I dealt with, is very obliging and ships the binocs very quickly. Not sure if the deal on eBay for the Strathspey's is cheaper than from the web site? I think the difference was the VAT and shipping which isn't quoted in the eBay price.

any luck with a suitable tripod?

JOhn

Thnaks for your reply John

Not sure if the deal on eBay for the Strathspey's is cheaper than from the web site?

No, I think it is marginally dearer.

any luck with a suitable tripod?

I'm looking for a 'parallelogram' mount from scs astro in the uk, from what you said this is as important as the binos! and i'm over 6ft tall

Keith..