At the Northern Optics weekend display at Barton Upon Humber a customer was looking for a quality compact monocular as a gift idea. After trying a Helios Rapide 8×25 monocular he had no hesitation in purchasing.
There is really no other monocular in this sub £15 price range that offers multi-coated optics and quality build. Also unlike many budget monoculars, they feature twist eye cups and long enough eye relief to be used with spectacles on. Close focus ability is also a major plus point
A customer came to the Northern Optics weekend display at the Waters` edge visitor centre at Barton Upon Humber looking for a lightweight set of binoculars for general use.
After trying a few sets, she chose the Hawke Endurance 8×32 binoculars. Despite being slightly heavier than hoped for, they ticked all the other boxes. These important factors included great optics, ease of use and being suitable for spectacle wearers.
These are now discontinued, but are still available from a select number of Hawke UK dealerships including ourselves (at the time of this review). The Endurance range offer exceptional optics with superb handling. Not the lightest 32mm binoculars, but this is due to the solid construction and rubber armour
Astronomy society based in North Lincolnshire with a passion for all things space. Meet on the last Wednesday of every month in the Methodist church, Hibaldstow, N.Lincolnshire at 7.15pm
For more information, see their facebook page HERE
Your local telescope and accessory dealer in North Lincolnshire is Northern Optics
After a few enquiries, I though I would give an opinion on the illusion optics WP 7×50 binoculars.
These come in a plain white box with standard spec nylon soft case. But unlike many binoculars they come with a large padded floatation strap.
First thing you will notice is the weight. At 1.2kg they are heavier than your average set of 50mm binoculars, but this is due to the solid construction. So lets have a look through them. First things first, the eye relief is so long there is no need to fold the eye cups down, even with spectacles on !.Remember these are large binoculars, so not suited to small hands.
Optically the large 50mm fully multi-coated optics and BaK-4 prisms give excellent brightness and contrast in all conditions. The 7mm exit pupil makes them suitable for low light / astronomy use as well as everyday use.
They are not close focus, so do not buy if you are looking to use for birds in the back garden. but for longer distances they excel. The large focus wheel is not the most fluid, but saying that the large depth of field means you are not constantly needing to adjust it.
False colour (chromatic aberration) is minimal in the centre and within tolerances on the edge. Nicely blackened edges give virtually no internal reflection which aids contrast.
The 122m @ 1000m field of view is wider than some 7x50s I have tested and makes tracking of moving targets easy
Summing up. If you have larger hands, and do not mind the weight then go for it. You certainly get a lot of binocular and great optics for your money
Click HERE to buy
The North Lincolnshire astronomy society met on Monday 4th April for the monthly meeting. Around 22 of the regulars turned up.
The talk was about the latest and upcoming NASA missions, and was kindly given by our resident expert Chris Roche. The missions included many well known names together with some ones that do not seem to make the headlines, but are just as important to scientific research.
As always thank you to the Lincolnshire wildlife for the use of venue and Sarah for her excellent tea,s and refreshments, that include the ever popular Captain Rondos biscuits
Click HERE for more information on the North Lincs astro society
I had the pleasure of testing the Helios Rapide 8×25 monocular this week. Aimed at the budget end of the market, but as you will see in this review it is anything but budget quality.
The outer packaging is a colourful and sturdy design, showing a good image of the monocular and the full specs. The case is a standard soft nylon one with a belt loop. Thankfully the cleaning cloth included is of a good standard. Sadly so many cleaning cloths with binoculars are very poor quality and wood do more harm than good.
So taking the monocular out of the box, you are greeted by a very sturdy looking body with thick rubber armour and an attractive design. The eye cup is twist type, and has eye relief long enough for spectacle wearers. At first I found the focus wheel quite stiff, but this loosed up very quickly with use.
Optically the view you get is outstanding for a £14.99 (at time of this review) monocular. The result is excellent colours and contrast with virtually no internal reflection. Also for such a small 25mm objective the field is very flat with excellent edge of field sharpness. This is without doubt the best sub £20 monocular I have tested
Close focus is 1.6m, making it also suitable for close up work such as insects in the garden. The wide 6.7 degree field makes tracking of moving targets a breeze. Just under half a turn of the focus wheel is needed for focus from arounf 5m to infinity.
Summing up I would recommend this for adults and children who are old enough to understand how to focus
To check availability contact Northern Optics HERE
Had my first chance this week to give the Celestron Upclose G2 10×25 binoculars a field test. The Upclose G2 range replaced the old Upclose range. Claimed improvements were upgrade from fully coated to multi-coated optics and an improved build quality. There is a slight price increase.
Compared to the old packaging, the latest model comes with more subtle colours , but shows a nice image of the binoculars and all the specs shown
The binoculars come in a standard soft nylon case with the logo showing. First thing you notice with the binoculars is the build quality. Excellent rubber armour which gives you confidence, makes for a solid grip and gives them a big binocular appearance.
First look through them you will notice the short eye relief. So you will need to hold them well up to your eyes. I tested in cloudy conditions, so was pleased to find the colours nice and clear. Maybe not the high contrast of BaK-4 prism binoculars, but the BK7 gave perfectly adequate results for binoculars in this price range.
There were some major plus points though. In the centre of view, there was virtually no CA or Chromatic aberration. There was some false colour on the edges, but well within tolerances. On the subject of the edge of field, there was much less fall of in quality and bending of straight lines than I have seen with many more expensive binoculars. The field was quite flat across the view, which is a major problem with many 20-25mm binoculars.
Eye relief is short, so I would not recommend for spectacle wearers. The rubber armour will give some protection from water penetration in a light short shower, but they are not waterproof. Be aware close focus is around 5m, so may not be suitable for study of insects.
Summing up, I would say these are perfect binoculars if you are looking for a sub £30 compact set for general use
The Celestron Upclose G2 10×25 binoculars can be purchased HERE from Northern Optics
Had to wait 40 minutes in the cold and foggy conditions for the resident Kingfisher to arrive at its usual perch at Ness End farm at Far Ings. It was worth the wait, as it gave us a good show for a few minutes, and caught a little fish to add to the spectacle.
Despite the foggy conditions, it was close enough to get a good result. Taken with a Canon EOS1100D _ Tamron 70-300mm lens
It is always tempting to `over edit` the colours with Kingfishers. But I find it best to keep it sensible and show them in their true colours
I took this lovely photo of a Dunnock at the Waters` Edge country park. Lighting was very tricky as it was heavily backlit, to the point where I needed to use flash. This sadly over compensated , leaving me with a washed out image. Thankfully the image was taken in raw file, so I could edit and bring out the detail, and tone it down.
Dunnocks are often confused with Sparrows, as they look very similar at first glance. This one was taken with a Canon EOS1100D and Tamron 70-300mm lens at 400 ISO
As the Ostara Plossl 6.5mm eyepiece is classed as a low-mid priced eyepiece, it seemed only fair to test on a Celestron Astromaster 70mm refractor. This gave a magnification of 138x. For a standard 70mm telescope this would be a good test for both telescope and eyepiece.
The Ostara PL 6,5mm was one of the later additions to the HR range. Fully coated optics and a sturdy metal body
Turning to Jupiter, I got very clear views of the 2 main cloud belts. But with a little patience some extra dark areas briefly appeared in the belts. The 4 main Moons were very clear points of light and fitted well in the field of view. The 6.5mm plossl does not come with a rubber eye cup , but without glasses I found this not an issue, and made for a very comfortable viewing experience. I would say the eyepiece is not for spectacle wearers.
But then by far the most rewarding and surprising view was when I turned to the lovely double star Algieba in Leo. I thought this pair of 2.4 and 3.6 magnitude stars with a small separation of 4.6 arc seconds would be a challenge. But was greeted by a beautiful sight with a clear gap between the two, with a sharp diffraction ring around each star making a stunning sight to see. One more nice surprise was the lack of chromatic aberration.
Summing up this is a great eyepiece for small – medium priced scopes. It may not have the high contrast of the fully multi-coated eyepieces, but is a great way to enjoy high magnification without breaking the bank
The Ostara PL 6.5mm eyepiece can be bought HERE from Northern Optics in Lincolnshire UK