by Fiske Miles | Jul 20, 2024 | Equipment, Ultra Astronomy
My rebirth in binocular astronomy after decades of mostly telescopic observing began with an Oberwerk binocular — the 10×50 Ultra. A classic independent-focus porro prism binocular optimized for astronomy. I was immediately captivated by the binocular,...
by Fiske Miles | Oct 4, 2023 | Equipment, Star Log
On wednesday evening, September 20, 2023, among other binocular astronomy adventures I observed a hexagonal asterism pointed out by fellow Cloudy Nights member aznuge with an APM 20×80 binocular I had been using to log Cygni 100 list doubles (back left in image)....
by Fiske Miles | Jun 12, 2023 | Equipment
A long anticipated arrival has occurred, and the Oberwerk 120XL-SD binocular telescope has returned to my Team BT, which now includes the full Oberwerk XL line-up (70XL-ED, 82XL-SD, 100XL-SD, 120XL-SD, and 127XL-SD). I evaluated the proto-type 120XL-SD several months...
by Fiske Miles | Apr 27, 2023 | Equipment, Sky Guide
A misperception exists about the capability of 10x binocular to resolve closer double stars. The actual limit is much closer than often believed. The closest double star I have resolved with a 10x binocular is 100 Herculis, which has a separation of only 14.3...
by Fiske Miles | Apr 2, 2023 | Equipment
I recently added Oberwerk 7mm XL eyepieces to my equipment collection for the purpose of doing comparisons with the 7mm eyepieces I customarily use – Pentax 7mm XWs. A collimation issue has been reported concerning the XL 7mm eyepieces, such that the eyepieces have to...
by Fiske Miles | Mar 8, 2023 | Equipment
It seemed like the forecast for Saturday night (4 March 2023) would not hold up, based on visual satellite imagery, but despite some hazy clouds and a 94.9% illuminated 11-day moon the skies were clear enough to do some observing so both the 25×100 ED Ultra and...
