I just ordered some binoculars, Nikon Monarch DCF 8x42

Hi Lori, I cannnot believe you haven't received a Galileoscope yet! That's amazing that it has taken this long and nothing. Nikon Monarchs are good binoculars. You get down to about 8.0-8.5 magnitude with them under a good dark sky. I use 10X50 Wind Rivers, and I can do several variable stars with those. In fact, in a few weeks I will put out a post to the 20/20 Team about my 10 favotire Spring binocular variable stars. Those Monarchs are great for bird watching, too! Now, the telescope. I'm not familiar with that brand. That's about a 4 inch mirror with f/7 focal length. You will not get a lot of power out of this, but if it is a decent scope, you should get decent images. I had a similar correspondence with another of our 20/20 Team members just recently. He had a similar scope to yours, but poor images. I had suggested to him the following, which I cannot promise is the case, but I have seen it happen plenty of times in low quality end scopes. Often, the main mirror is fine, but the manufacturer puts the junk eyepieces with it, which give the worst images. Many a times have I known people to buy a new set of good eyepieces, and it's like the scope comes alive. Are your eyepieces .965 (24.5mm)or 1 1/4 inch diameter or (32mm) diameter barrel that goes into focuser? Then, what is the mm number on each eyepiece, or the power X on each eyepiece. Most eyepieces may have a number on them like 35, or 12. Those are the mm of the lens. Does the eyepiece have a letter on it like H, R, E? Or, check your manual- are the eyepieces Ramsdens, Huygens, erfle, plossel. This makes a difference as to quality. Here was my suggestion to the other fellow: Have a range of eyepieces in the mm range of 32, 25, 15 to 12, and 9. 32 would be low power, 9 would be high. Remember, 32 would have wider field. Now, you may even have just cheap plastic lenses in your eyepieces. So, if you have access to purchase eyepieces from Orion Telescope (Google it), or Celestron or Meade eyepieces, you can get better eyepieces through them. Orion has a line called Ultrascopic that are great yet a good price range. Try to get plossels, those are the best all round. For low and medium power Erfles are good, too. For medium and high Orthoscopics can be very good. It may also be that you have a very simple a fixable situation, your optics may simply be out of alignment. It's actually an easy fix, and there should be instructions in your manual on how to align your optics. I am going to research your scope a bit on the Internet, and thenI will put another post on here with a few other ideas. Chris Stephan Robert Clyde Observatory Sebring, Florida USA You will not see much of Mars with this scope. Just a small red/orange disk, not a star. However, it the disk should be nice and round with a sharp edge.

Lori, I checked into your scope. You are right in saying it is from Toys R Us. You have 1.25 inch diameter eyepieces. You should have 20, 12.5, 9, and 4 mm eyepieces. I am probably pretty accurate on my assumption of bad eyepieces, just from what I've seen on the Internet. I also found that people have had problems with alignment (colllimation) on this scope. Here's a web site that may give you some idea of how to collimate the scope, if needed http://www.andysshotglass.com/Collimating.html You will notice that this guy has a 10 inch Orion dobsonian reflector. I have one that is similar, but mineis a Hardin Optical. His instructions won't be exact for your scope, you will have adjustment screws in different spots, but you should be able to figure it out. You will notice that this fellow's web page has small Orion adds at the bottom. See if you can get some better eyepieces through them. Those Ultrascopics are good, so are the Sirius plosseleyepieces. You would do fine with a 25, 15, and 9 mm. The 4 is simply to narrow of a field of view for your size scope. The barlow that came with your scope is probably not worth using, it will just cause you more headaches. Is there a local astronomy club where you live? Those are usually some of the best folks to help you with your telescope optics. Are you planning on attending the Citizen Sky conference in California this September? Try these things out. If not, keep the questions coming. Chris Stephan Robert Clyde Observatory Sebring, Florida USA

Hi Chris, I want to thank you for spending time to help me. You are wonderful!!!!! I watched the video and it did help me to align the scope a bit. I can actually use the barlow now with the 20 mm. I think the eye pieces are the problem (APART FROM THE BAD QUALITY) I have a friend who is the president of an Astronomy club in a town about an hour away so when the weather clears up I will go to visit him. He told me I should have asked him about Binoculars before going ahead and buying these. I hope I haven´t made a huge mistake. They cost 390 Euros. They should arrive tomorrow,so, I don´t know maybe I should return them and get some 7 X 50 meade binoculars as he suggests. What do you think. I know absolutely nothing on the subject. I am over 40 so the pupil exit thing should be 5mm or less right? I will not be attending the Citizen Sky conference in California this September. It is too expensive to fly for me. I need to buy a good telescope first. Lori

Goodevening Lori, I am shocked to see the price of your 8x42 binos. I bought an olympus 10x50 DPSI wide angle bino 6.5Deg FOV which is equivalent to 69 Euros, in India. It is fabricated in china but the quality is good, comes with warranty. This 10x50 is really wonderful. If its possible, exchange it for a 10x50. About brands, I wonder whether its worth paying thatmuch for a Nikon if you can get an Olympus at a much cheaper rate. May be Chris will be able to tell. Regards, Unni

Hi Lori and Unni, I have to admit I am totally ignorant as to Euros and how they compare to US dollars. Olympus is another good brand, and yes I would prefer 10X50, which is what I have. Lori, would it be a hassle to send them back? What would be your wait time to be able to get a pair of 10X 50's? Where did you purchase them from? Unni, where did you purchase yours from? Don't get real concerned Lori, the Nikons will work fine for you. I just do not know anything about Euros. Lori, if you were ordering from a US company, I could give you some good tips. Chris Stephan

Ooops I realized that Imade a mistake with the price the were 290 Euros with shipping included. I did get them and for me (since they are my first binoculars) they seem incredible. I saw the orion nebula and the bee cluster I looked at EA and it looked even less brighter than the 38 Comparison Star. What could I look at to compare it with what you could see with the 10 X 50 type

Lori, I'm glad you like the binoculars. About the only difference would be a little wider field of view. Sounds like they work, so go with them. If you look at the Eps Aur chart, use the 4.3 star west of Eps along with the 32 and 38. Chris

Hi Lori & Chris, I bought the Olympus 10x50 DPSI Wide from Chennai,India (Where I live). Lori's binos is defenitely a fine piece of equipment, may be it is having BAK4 prism instead of the BK7 which is in my binos. BK4 is a superior material. Lori, 10x50 is slightly brighter due to the bigger diameter of the lens. I think in Lori's area, these type of equipments are expensive irrespective of the brand. Chris, 290Euros is equal to 395USD. I just checked Lori's bino specs. Its a high end waterproof, sealed, roof prism,phase corrected,nitrogen filled fog free bino.No wonder, its priced so high. Nikon Action VII 10x50, similar to the one I have costs around 130USD. So, Lori has got what he paid for, nothingto regret !! Regards, unni

Hope you've been enjoying your binoculars Lori! I'm in the process of updating my bino setup now, my neck had just gotten enough from using a tripod alone so I got my hands on a parallelogram mount and am awaiting delivery of a new tripod to put it on. With the summer here and it not being a quick thing to setup and wait for my CPC1100 to cool down, I've been using my bino's more and more to make observations (which Ineed to input into AAVSOstill, Iknow I've been a bad boy!) as it's easier given the shorter dark time during the week. This will make my observing with bino's much more comfortable and easy on the neck. lol One other recommendation Iwould like to pass along, Ifound a wonderful little tool at my local dollar store. They are stocking several types of 'book lights' now and they can be modified for use in the field by adding red tape (brake light tape from an auto store) or red nail polish or even red acrylic paint for my fellow model builders out there. They are also carrying USBlights, you can plug into a laptop and the light is on a long flexible arm that can be moved anywhere. A great way to light up your keyboard or point off to the side and light up your finder charts!