Denk II vs Big Easy vs WO binoviewer Shootout on 25 Aug

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:17 pm

Calling all 'Steves' as well as 'Alfreds'...

For tonight only, we are going to test and compare three binoviewers: Denkmeier II vs The Big Easy (Denk Std) vs WO binoviewer in a few different telescopes: Obby 12.5"f/5, Skywatcher Newtonian 10"f/4.7, Mewlon 8.3"f/11.3, and more... We will also compare two of the best pairs of binoviewer eyepieces: Pentax 20XW vs D21s.

Date: 25 Aug 2006 (Tonight!)
Time: 9pm - 12 midnight onwards (weather pending)
Location: end of Lim Chu Kang Lane 1A (one of the better ob sites)

Some guys have said there is no difference between binoviewer A vs B vs C. Come join us, see it and decide for yourself! If you can, bring along your telescope(s), tracking mount, pairs of eyepieces, binoviewers, etc for testing too!

So far, the following people are probably coming: rlow, ian, tachyon, canopus, elton, clement, wu chee yuin, weixing, arief, roma_my, matthew(?), vincent snr(?).... etc

river · Post by **river** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 4:59 pm

ahh.. miss it... Sky on Friday night was clear, I guess you guys had a wonderful session. So hows the outcome??

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ops sorry, forget that you guys have the shootout Part II at Mersing tonight. Looking forward your comment after the mersing trip. Have a nice weekend.

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:00 pm

Yes, Friday night was relatively clear and we managed to view through the Denk II and WO binoviewers. We were not so lucky at our Mersing trip as we only manage to see a few objects (monocular view) before the clouds rolled in. I will be testing out the Big Easy and WO binoviewers tonight at my place. Call me if you are interested to come and observe.

wucheeyiun · Post by **wucheeyiun** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:02 pm

hi Richard,
how is the binoviewer shoot out at Mersing?
When we were at Lim Chu Kang Lane 1, the only good thing of Denk 2 is the brightness of view which is a big plus.
Ian's WO binoviewer is as sharp as the Denk 2 ( ie no eyepiece view merging problem ).

At Lim Chu Kang, we saw very good views of M7, M22, and a very bad jumpy view of Jupiter due to atmospheric aberation.

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:52 pm

We did not try out the Big Easy & WO binoviewers at Mersing due to the weather.

I also did not have any image-merging issues for either binoviewer.

I think most binoviewers or eyepieces would give relatively sharp images at lower magnification. At Lim Chu Kang last Friday, we have not pushed the Denk II & WO binoviewers to high power as we did not have the appropriate eyepieces or barlows then. Any difference in sharpness would probably be apparent only at high power with good seeing condition. Any difference in throughput will be apparent only when we test on faint objects in dark transparent skies.

Last Friday, the usage versatility on various scopes, and the convenience of the Powerswitch (PxS) was also not tested as the PxS I borrowed was on the separate Denk diagonal. The Denk II which I borrowed is without the PxS, and it is a specific 'SCT' version, not the 'universal PxS' version, hence some accessories needed for the FLT110 and Obby are not available to us.