Telescope Reviews: Kowa Highlander / Miyauchi 26x100 / Garrett 20x110

Oleg ,

Welcome to the forum !

I'm not going to even try to sway your thoughts either way from the three models on your shortlist , but one thing about your STATED INTENDED USAGE acted as a kind of catalyst to mention something I've been thinking about for a while .

I hope that yourself and any other reader will forgive me for diversifying from the original , central query .

You probably won't " know me from Adam " , so let me explain that although I've spent an outlandish amount of time over the past five years or so reading and writing to astronomy related forums , around 90% of my time spent looking through binoculars and spotting scopes is NOT carried out during the sunset hours .

I've been fascinated by LONG RANGE TERRESTRIAL VIEWING through binoculars and scopes for well over 40 years now .

I currently use a Zeiss 85mm diascope with a 20 - 60x zoom lens and a variety of good to excellent quality binoculars ranging from 7x to 15x in magnification , ALL preferably tripod MOUNTED .

Having binoculars mounted not only provides rock steady views , which increase and improve what I can SEE compared with hand - holding binoculars , but probably even MORE importantly , it completely FREES UP my hands and arms with which to do whatever I please , which certainly includes keeping arms vertical , a position in which they tend NOT to tire or ache , making notes , keeping hands in warm pockets on very cold days and holding maps to consult whilst viewing .

All this may seem like a wander too far from the question I'm supposed to be answering , but the point is this :

Until relatively recently , I've always thought that the MAIN reason I prefer looking through binoculars to looking through scopes was because , as my long standing signature line has proclaimed , I simply prefer to use BOTH EYES when viewing .

And I still do !

BUT -- what I'm finally beginning to realise , is that for MOST of MY type of terrestrial viewing , any TRUE field of view of less than around 5 degrees ALWAYS leaves something to be desired .

Another thing I've realised is that on more than half of the HUNDREDS of occasions on which I've looked through binoculars and / or scopes in the daytime , heat haze or mirage caused by evapouration have rendered magnifications of above around 15x all but self - defeating .

Until recently , I've been unable to compare views through my Diascope at FIXED magnifications , with views through the zoom lens , and perhaps the biggest surprise of my conclusions after doing so is that I must have become so used to using the ZOOM feature that I've found all the fixed eyepieces I've tried so INFLEXIBLE by comparison as to be almost " boring " .

When I get frustrated by the either the lack of field of view or excessive " mirage effect " when looking through , for example a 10mm e.p yielding 50x magnification , I'm finding it equally frustrating , burdensome and fiddly , having to start unscrewing eyepiece adaptor retainers , carefully put the e.p away in it's container , open up another , screw in the adaptor , screw the retaining collar into the e.p holder , then re - focus .

Even when I AM using the zoom lens in VERY GOOD , CLEAR seeing conditions , I've found that I probably spend around 75% of that time with the zoom set at it's MINIMUM magnification , approximately half again of which I find myself WISHING the zoom would REDUCE to a magnification of around 10x and ENLARGE the FIELD OF VIEW accordingly , up to at least 5 degrees .

Now for night time star gazing ( I always feel rather guilty using the word ASTRONOMY ! ), I'm increasingly finding myself questioning why anyone would wish to spend
sums in excess of $5000 US for views limited to magnifications below what I can use in my 85mm scope .

I actually ENJOY sitting or lying on my back , casually taking in RELAXING views of our galaxy through lower magnification binoculars , but when I look at what can be seen at 60x magnification through my scope , it's a wholly different scenario to ME .

All that does is make me want to see what I can see at 100x , 150x , 200x , 250x and above .

Given my preference for using TWO EYES , and my ( admittedly limited ) knowledge of traditional binoculars and how they work , if it were ME with several thousand dollars to spend on TWO EYED ASTRONOMY instruments , I am currently of the opinion that my money would be better spent on a DEDICATED astronomy telescope and the highest quality BINOVIEWER and HIGHER POWER eyepieces I could afford . ?

Irridational , or irrational ?

Clear skies ,

Kenny

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If everyone is thinking the same thing , no-one is thinking - General George S.Patton

Zeiss 7 x 42 BGAT
Captain's Helmsman 7 x 50
Nikon 10 x 42 Superior E
Swift Audubon Kestrel 10 x 50
Helios 15 x 70 Observation
Strathspey 20 x 90
Televue 76 APO
Zeiss 85 Diascope
Helios 102 f5 refractor
Various eyepieces barlows tripods mounts etc.
Panasonic Lumix DMC - TZ5 digital camera