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More Information  · Images of Some Features Price $695.00 Weight 6 lbs., 4 oz. Warranty 1 year

The Standard binoviewer’s 26mm clear aperture prisms are larger than the 20mm to 22mm prisms used in bargain-priced imported binoviewers. Unlike those smaller prisms, the 26mm prisms won’t vignette long focal length eyepieces. The high quality BaK4 prisms are polished to 1/4th wave accuracy for sharp images. They are anti-reflection coated with magnesium fluoride for high light transmission.

The fully multicoated 1.25" modular Optical Corrector System (OCS) optics are housed in precision-machined black anodized aluminum tubes and are threaded for 1.25" filters. The 1.25" nosepiece also is threaded for filters and has a safety groove cut into its body that will catch your focuser’s thumbscrew or compression ring and keep the binoviewer from falling to the ground should the focuser thumbscrew accidentally loosen during use. The OCS housings and 1.25" nosepiece use stealth black baffling and special grooving on the interiors to eliminate reflection throughout the visible spectrum.

The SCD (self-centering diopter) eyepiece holders are CNC machined of anodized aluminum. They are self-centering for proper merging of the images. A twist on the holder collar collapses an internal split ring evenly around the 360° circumference of the eyepiece barrel. This holds the eyepiece in place without scratching, and without the use of an easily-lost thumbscrew. Individual focusing of each eyepiece is accomplished by rotating a second collar on each eyepiece. This raises and lowers the eyepieces to change the focus in either or both eyepieces, the same way the diopter ring on one eyepiece of a binocular corrects for differences in your vision. The interpupillary distance range extends from 50mm to 75mm, a wide enough spread to accommodate virtually any eye spacing, even that of children. Plastic dust seals are provided to keep the optics dust-free when the binoviewer is not in use.

The Standard binoviewer combines the OCS optics with a unique single arm Power x Switch lens that you can move in and out of the light path at the touch of a finger. Together, they allow multiple magnifications with a single pair of eyepieces, no matter whether you’re using a refractor, Newtonian reflector, or Schmidt-Cassegrain.

With reflectors, the supplied 1.25" Newtonian spacer tube assembly, 1.25" nosepiece, and 1.25" multipurpose OCS cell are used as a single connected unit and threaded into the Power x Switch. This allows a Newtonian reflector to operate at 1.5x with the Power x Switch arm pushed in, or at 2.5x with the Power x Switch arm pulled out.

With refractors, the middle Newtonian spacer tube is not used. The 1.25" OCS cell is threaded into the filter threads on the telescope side of a 1.25" star diagonal. The binoviewer is then loaded into the eyepiece side of the star diagonal. If you push the Power x Switch arm in you get a low 1.4x magnification. Pull the arm out and you get a high 2.5x magnification. If you have a 2" star diagonal, a separate 2" part T is provided that allows you to thread the 1.25" OCS cell into the 2" telescope side filter threads of the diagonal. The binoviewer is loaded into the eyepiece side of the diagonal using the 1.25" adapter supplied with the diagonal. Higher magnifications will result with a 2" diagonal compared to using this system in a 1.25" star diagonal, but the exact increase in magnification will depend on the length of the light path through your particular 2" diagonal.

With f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrains, the Standard binoviewer is used with only the Power x Switch and 1.25" nosepiece for reduction and normal magnifications. Move the Power x Switch arm in for a 0.66x reduction (an f/6.6 focal ratio) and out for 1.15x (normal) magnification. If the 1.25" OCS cell is threaded into the 1.25" nosepiece and the Power x Switch arm is moved to the out position, 2x magnification will result.

With any telescope that uses a star diagonal but cannot provide the back focus necessary for the binoviewer to reach focus, the system is essentially used in the same way as it is with a refractor. Telescopes like a Takahashi Mewlon, TEC Maksutov, a classical Cassegrain, or a Tal Klestov require that the binoviewer be used as if these scopes were refractors. Just follow the refractor instructions and remember that the 1.25" OCS cell must be installed in the star diagonal at all times. Focal reduction cannot be achieved with such telescopes.

When using a telescope like a Questar, Meade ETX90 through 125, Meade Maksutov, Orion Mak, Intes Micro and some other scopes, the 1.25" OCS cell should not be installed in the diagonal. Focal reduction is possible when using the Power x Switch in these telescopes. Due to the long focal length, and small relative aperture inherent to Maksutovs, this is very desirable for deep sky work. Push the Power x Switch arm to the in position for focal reduction. The 1.25" OCS cell may be threaded in for 2x magnification, with the Power x Switch arm moved to the out position.

The 1.25" OCS cell may also be used with Coronado solar filter blocking filter diagonals. These BF diagonals have filter threads on the telescope side that the OCS cell must be installed in when the binoviewer is used or focus will not be possible. The binoviewer with Power x Switch can then be loaded in the front of the Coronado Diagonal for H-alpha use. Operation is essentially the same as it is for with night use with a refractor. The OCS cell must be used at all times in the 1.25" Coronado star diagonal or focus and Power x Switching will not be possible. When using a SolarMax 90 Telescope, the 1.25" OCS cell is unnecessary because that telescope has a special shortened tube designed to allow the Denkmeier Binoviewer to reach focus.

Each made-in-the-USA Denkmeier Standard Binoviewer is carefully hand collimated and undergoes a meticulous 100% quality control process before shipping so you know it works right, right out of the box. It can provide detailed, unvignetted, and comfortable two-eyed multiple magnification views of the Moon, planets, the Sun, and countless deep sky objects – all at a very affordable price.