I gotta show off the big eye binos I just scored

[Lee in Texas]

I was on ebay looking through spotting scopes for a big eyes project. I was concentrating on older Leica 62 and 77mm scopes, then stumbled across this:

Swarovski 30x75s. I was 1 of 2 bidders. The price was right; just over half the price of an old Leica 77mm APO Televid, and no custom bracket to fabricate.

Yeah, they're kind of old, but...Swarovski!

 

[TAJ45]

Congrats - But I can't discern what that is .... ?

 

[Bc'z]

Congrats - But I can't discern what that is .... ?

Starship Enterprise

 

[Lee in Texas]

From the internet

I've read conflicting info about these. One source says Swarovski put 2 spotting scopes together in a big boxy housing and sold it for around $2200, back in the late '80s. Someone else may be able to find an owner's manual.

 

[TAJ45]

That was my vague guess. Your pic put it into perspective. Thanks much

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Ive seen tons of big eyes made from good spotting scopes. I think @dkhunt14 has a very nice set. If not he knows where some are at ive seen his friends with em before. Id love to have a set but every time i buy a good spotter they quit selling that model and i cant bring myself to buying 2 at once

 

[Lee in Texas]

I bought 2 Spacemasters...then found out they were the wrong type.

 

[TAJ45]

That would be an Arrrggghhhh ! ! Lee

 

[Papa Charlie]

Ive seen tons of big eyes made from good spotting scopes. I think @dkhunt14 has a very nice set. If not he knows where some are at ive seen his friends with em before. Id love to have a set but every time i buy a good spotter they quit selling that model and i cant bring myself to buying 2 at once

Are you saying that the concept is to purchase two spotting scopes and then marry them together with some type of bracketing to create very powerful binoculars?
If that is what is suggested, it would seem that one restriction would be the Optics size. Would be cool to have them with angled for viewing. Reminds me of those oversized binoculars they use or use to use on naval ships for lookouts.

 

[Texas10]

https://www.celestron.com/products/skymaster-18-40x80-zoom-binocular

Now that's a pair of binoculars!

 

[M14AMU]

Where's the wheels and the tow tongue and ball hitch??

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Are you saying that the concept is to purchase two spotting scopes and then marry them together with some type of bracketing to create very powerful binoculars?
If that is what is suggested, it would seem that one restriction would be the Optics size. Would be cool to have them with angled for viewing. Reminds me of those oversized binoculars they use or use to use on naval ships for lookouts.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

 

[Papa Charlie]

Interesting, thanks for posting that.
May be a stupid question but other than increasing the field of view, what is the advantage?

 

[Lee in Texas]

https://www.celestron.com/products/skymaster-18-40x80-zoom-binocular

Now that's a pair of binoculars!

I have Celestron 25x100 binos, but it's just not quality glass. They're fun to mess around with. I mail ordered them when I was deployed to Afghanistan and bored it of my mind. I would take them to the guard tower and watch nothing happen at 25x. At night, I could see Jupiter and her 4 largest moons...but I've wanted some bigeyes with better glass for years.

 

[Lee in Texas]

View attachment 1090265

Oh my. I really like those A LOT. I saw them (or an identical unit) while searching for spotting scopes and just info on them. I was wondering if anyone had made bigeyes from a pair of angled scopes.

Bigeyes made from a pair of Swarovski AT 80s would be great.

I don't know if the objectives are too big to collimate with the angled eyepieces, though.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I dont think angled eyepieces would work unless you had severe blue eyes (one blew east, one blew west)

 

[Papa Charlie]

I don't know why the angled wouldn't work. They would just angle up, inline with the tube. It wouldn't be any different from the straight other than you could look down into the bino's instead of having to have the bino's up at eye level.

 

[Lee in Texas]

A lot of the bigeyes have spotting scopes rotated so the eyepieces have the right spacing. Not really an option with angled eyepieces. A pair of Swarovski AT 80s may work. I would need to take measurements off one and do some math. They would make some awesome binos.

 

[Texas10]

Starship Enterprise

That was my first reaction