Binocular Reviews | Binoculars and Telescopes for Birdwatchers and Astronomers

North Lincs astro meeting 1st August 2016

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Reviewer

The speaker at the North Lincs astro society meeting tonight was Charles Thody, who gave an excellent talk on photography using a DSLR camera on its own and through a telescope..This was a back to basics talk that was both a refresher session for some, and an introduction to astro imaging to the rest of the members who had not been present at Charles,s first talk on this subject.

The lecture was presented very well in an easy to understand way. And I,m sure it will encourage us all outside with our cameras at the next opportunity.

Around 22 members were there. Though there was an unexpected delay of milk due to there only being one cashier at the till causing the hold up (yes we believe you Sarah). This meant sadly a few of us had to survive on black coffee for a while. Sorry Sarah, only kidding, you do a great job and your efforts are appreciated

For more information on the North Lincs astro society, click HERE

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Visionary M10 10×50 monocular. A step up from 8×32

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Reviewer

The Visionary 10×50 monocular was the natural step up for a customer who visited the Northern Optics weekend outlet, and already owned an Opticron 8×32 LER. They was looking for more magnification and clarity. The Visionary 10×50 ticked all the boxes, which included long eye relief, fully multi-coated optics and a large BaK-4 prism.

Another major plus point the customer was not expecting was the mini tripod included, that became a bespoke hand grip to keep things steady. Contact Northern Optics to check availability and the latest price

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Optical Hardware illuminated reticle eyepiece OH337280

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Reviewer

The Optical Hardware 12.5mm 1.25″ illuminated eyepiece has a twin crosshair reticle that can be adjusted for brightness. The battery section screws into the side of the eyepiece, and includes the batteries.

This eyepiece can be purchased from Northern Optics who will test the eyepiece before sending. Image upper right shows the crosshair at full brightness

The eyepiece itself is a sturdy plossl design with good eye relief

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Olivon PC 8×42 binoculars. A good step up from 10×25 binoculars OL338058

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Reviewer

The Olivon PC 8×42 were the perfect choice for a customer visiting the Northern Optics weekend outlet at the Waters` edge centre at Barton Upon Humber.

He was looking for a high grade set in the £200 range as an upgrade for his current Pentax 10×25 binoculars. After trying a few sets of 8×42 and 10×42, the set they chose was the Olivon PC 8×42. All the binoculars felt similar and had were around the same weight, but in the customers opinion the Olivon PC 8×42 gave less of a colour cast that he found in the others.

From our point of view, this is not the first time a customer has placed the Olivon PC 42mm binoculars ahead of higher spec ED optics. This proves the point you should not judge all books by their cover, and there are some fantastic non ED binoculars that perform just as good as their low dispersion alternatives

Posted in Olivon spotting scopes | Tagged 8x42, binoculars, olivon, PC | Comments Off

Ostara Elinor 10×50 binoculars OS331493. Ideal for hand held astronomy

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Reviewer

A customer came to the Northern Optics weekend outlet at Barton Upon Humber looking for a set of portable binoculars suitable for astronomy, and would compliment their two large astronomical telescopes.

After looking through a few sets in the 7×50, 8×56, 10×50, 12×60 and 15×70, he opted for the popular Ostara Elinor 10×50 binoculars.

There were two main reasons for this. They felt comfortable to hold and light enough to hold them steady. But the thing that did it was the quality of optics. He said they gave a much sharper image with higher contrast than the others. This is a high priority for quality wide field views of astronomical targets

As always at the Waters` Edge centre outlet, you get a chance to try before you buy. You can not do this on-line

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Helios Mistral WP6 10x42ED binoculars review 30956

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Reviewer

A customer came to the Northern Optics weekend outlet looking for an upgrade to his Celestron 8×32 binoculars that they had bought from us.

Ideally he wanted a set of high quality 10x42s. Luckily we had a good choice of the new Helios Mistral WP6 range in stock to try. After trying a few sets, he opted for the Helios Mistral 10x42ED. Although the 8x42ED gave a brighter image, the 10x magnification outweighed this. Compared to the non ED models , the 10x42ED gave no false colour fringing in the centre of view. This is a must have optical quality for the discerning birdwatcher.

From our point of view Helios have once again come up with great value for money ED optics without sacrificing quality. No these will not compete with outstanding ED binoculars such as the Hawke Frontier ED models, but then these are half the price

Handling is excellent with a large focus wheel that extremely smooth in operation. This has been highlighted in other reviews I have seen.

Available to purchase HERE

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North Lincs astro meeting. 6th June 2016

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Reviewer

The North Lincs astronomy society had around 20 turn up for the 6th June 2016 meeting at Far Ings nature reserve. Also 4 fresh faces came along to try the club for the first time.

The talk today was by Paul Cotton on Solar imaging. Before had, he set up his solar telescope to take some images with a CCD camera. Once we were all ready he took us all through the steps on imaging from the start. This included showing us his telescope set up.

Paul then very kindly loaded the data into his laptop and gave us a step by step guide on how to process the image using 3 different software programs. The detail that emerged as we watched was breathtaking , and no doubt gave us all some inspiration to have a go with our own telescopes

Thanks as always to Sarah for the tea,s and the wildlife trust for the use of the venue

Click HERE for more information on the North Lincs astro society

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Ostara Elinor 8×45 binoculars OS331479

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Reviewer

If the popular Ostara Elinor 10×50 binoculars are too large for you, the equally impressive Elinor 8×45 are not only a worthy alternative, but better in a couple of ways. For one, they are lighter, and secondly give a picture window 145m @ 1000m field of view.

The larger field of view and impressive optics makes them perfect for general use and birdwatching. But same as the 10×50 version are also ideal for wide field astronomy

Oversized twist eye cups, right eye dioptre adjustment and focuser makes them easy to use even with glasses on. As with all the Elinor range they are as tough as binoculars come, and are backed up with a 30 years warranty

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Skywatcher 1.25″ 8-24mm eyepiece 20149

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Reviewer

The Skywatcher 8-24mm zoom eyepiece is an ideal starter accessory at a sensible price. With a focal length of 8mm – 24mm it will be useful for most situations. It used for astronomy, there will be some loss of light, contrast and a narrower field of view compared like for like with a fixed FL eyepiece of the same setting..But had the advantage of being a single eyepiece rather than changing from one fixed to the next.

I would highly recommend this eyepiece for terrestrial use with short tube refractors such as the Skywatcher short tube 80mm

This eyepiece can also be used in theory for DSLR digiscoping. To do this remove the rubber eye cup to reveal the t-thread. You can then attach a t-ring for use with an SLR camera body. However, depending on the telescope you use, you may need to use with a barlow lens or use a low profile focuser to achieve infinity focus

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Hawke Endurance PC 10×32 binoculars Ideal for close up work

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Reviewer

A customer came to the Northern Optics outlet looking for a smaller set of binoculars that would compliment his larger set of 10×50.

After trying a few sets, he opted for the Hawke Endurance PC 10×32 binoculars. These have now been discontinued, and this was our last one. However if you are lucky some sellers may still have a few left.

Just the same as so many that have bought these binoculars , the customer was impressed with the handling, optics and value for money. But the thing that impressed him so much was the close focus. This opened up a whole new world of observations like insect life that would not be possible with many binoculars

Posted in Hawke Binocular Reviews | Tagged 10x32, endurance, hawke | Comments Off