Telescope Reviews: To Baader Mark V, or not!

I have a TEC 140 and tried to use it with a Baader MKV bino, the best, so to speak. Mr. Baader told me I could try it out and if I didn't like it I could send it back and get a complete refund, which is what I did, read on...The MKV has two clicklock eyepiece holders. I once had a diagonal of Baader with this clicklock thing and I didn't like it at all, because each time I inserted an eyepiece, it came out of the clicklock full of grease on the barrel! Before ordering the bino I mentioned this to Mr. Baader, and he assured me he would personally make shure I got a bino with two clicklocks that wouldn't have this problem. When it came in, I opened the box and first thing I tried was putting two eyepieces into the holders to see if there was no grease as promised, and when I pulled the eyepieces back out, there was...hm, indeed grease on the barrels. Not so much as with my earlier clicklock, but it was there allright!! So you can imagine that after inserting the oculars several times, which I tried, there was still a large enough amount of grease on the barrels. No big problem, but still I don't like my hands full off grease in the dark.....before you know it everything is full of grease and sooner or later...well you get the picture. I don't think this is necesarry on such expensive equipment, no?

Than second thing I found out is that those clicklocks on the MK5 are so short that you cannot completely insert certain eyepieces with slightly longer barrels like certain radians and nagler type 6, pentax XF etc...No big deal you would say, but...since the eyepiece is not fully inserted in the holders, you cannot adjust the diopters anymore! O.K., there is a solution for this by just adding two rings between the eyepieces and the holders and now you can adjust the diopters again, but still one more item to fiddle with and i.m.o. not so good for such expensive equipment. In the Televue bino you insert whatever you want and without the grease problem. There is no diopter adjustment on the T.V., I know, but this brings us to issue nr. 2! Allthough the diopters are there and fully adjustable the thread is sooo fine that it takes forever to adjust an eyepiece with them, but, they are there and they work, but could be much better for such expensive equipment!

When I assembled the whole parts together, I found out that when I tried to screw the bayonet onto the T-2 diagonal prism that came with it, the screw to lock this bayonet was pointing towards the nosepiece side of the prism. Now I could not push the diagonal into the TEC, because this screw hits the end cap of the TEC. Than I tried to use the supplied plastic washer between the diagonal and the bayonet,on top off the allready installed washer, (two washers now) same story. I called Baader and an employee there told me I could also try to use no washer at all (metal on metal). I didn't fancy this a lot because this might damage the paint on the diagonal, and was afraid they wouldn't take it back when damaged. But I just had to try this, and it worked more or less. Now I could at least insert the whole thing into the TEC, allthough the screw now sat under the bino, instead of behind it, which works, no problem, but is not too easy when you want to remove the bino. But since the bino and the corrector where meant to stay there forever, I could live with this. Allthough on the pictures on their website, this large screw sits nicely behind the bino, but still no big deal, just a slight annoyance, and one more negative point for Baader that's all.

Now I tried to focus this thing and it worked, but the whole heavy thing wiggled inside the collet of my TEC 140 focuser, but this is not the fault of the bino but of the focuser (is replaced now with Astrophysics stuff, which works great now!).

I first tried two Baader 30mm Eudiascopics and they were o.k. and comfortable to use. Than the 20mm's TV plössls, hm, o.k. but the 13 mm's or so eyerelief was the limit for my comfort, but still o.k., but only 61X magnification and therefore useless on the moon and planets (o.k. for complete moon in the eyepiece, but not for detailed viewing). On than to the 15mm plössls from TV...useless I.M.O., because much too little eyerelief for my likings and still only 82X magnification.

I did not want to try the 2,6 X corrector, because this one is known to be inferior to the 1,25X and the 1,7X, and this last one also only gives me 111X with the 15mm plössls, so not good. Than I tried to use the whole contraption with the Barcon barlow. I screwed the glassparth of the barcon in front of the diagonal, as sugested by A.P.This barlow now served also as the nosepiece of the bino. This would give enough magnif. O.K. lets try it out! Oeps, focuser completely racked out and no focus point, *BLEEP*. This thing starts to work on my nerves now! So I used an extention tube now. O.K. focus point reached, enough magnification, BUT, what a sight now, a completely racked out (very heavy!) focuser, then one long extention tube (heavy) and at the end, way back behind the TEC 140 one heavy block (barcon/diagonal/bino/two eyepieces). I looked if everything was locked well in place, cause I didn't want to see this thing smash onto the concrete floor! The extention tube wiggled inside the focuser, but as mentioned before, this was not the bino's fault, but the focuser's (O.K. now!), but oh my God the barcon element, now used as a 2" nosepiece, was wobbling heavily inside the extention tube. Now I saw what was wrong here! As you screw the barcon into the diagonal there remains a gap of 5mm's or so between the diagonal and the barcon, because there is a different thread on the outside of the barcon, for using it as one complete barlow. Now the bronze ring of the extention tube did catch right in that 5mm gap, which prevented the barcon to be well locked inside the extention. So, not good enough for me.

So let's try to reassemble the barcon and put it completey assembled in front of the bino. O.K., now the bino didn't wiggle inside the barcon anymore, logical. Try to focus...njet, not enough backfocus! So an even longer extention would be needed now. O.K. now I stopped cause I have had enough of this fiddling with all those different bits and pieces.

I gave up and send the whole shabla back to Baader, got a refund as promised. Now I am using Pentax XW eyepieces, in mono mode, great eyerelief and extremely comfortable to use. Exit binoviewing for me, at least for the time being. If I should ever decide to use a bino again, I would simply take the Televue with it's 2X dedicated corrector, simply plug it inside my 2" diagonal and enjoy using it, without extentions, wobbling barcons etc...Now mind you, I did not say anywhere here that the Baader is not a fine bino, but much to much fiddling around with adapters, extentions etc..for my likings with this particular scope anyway.

But there are other minor issues with Baader. When I send the bino back, I ordered a 2" maxbright mirror. When I opened the box, I immediatly saw that there was one screw completely sticking out of the housing and when I screwed it back in I saw that all the other 3 screws just sat loose in the housing? No big deal, once again, just as with the bayonet of the bino, but still, not good i.m.o. for such expensive equipment. And there was yet another issue with the diagonal! While the bino had a nosepiece of 43mm lenght, this nosepiece was only 26mm long. Very short for a 2" nosepiece. I insert the diagonal in the collet of the TEC and guess what? It even wobbled more than other 2" accesories did! Now, once again, this is the fault of the collet of my focuser, now replaced, and o.k. 100% by A.P. stuff, but still....I would like to see a decent 2" nosepiece of 45mm's or so on such an expensive heavy diagonal, like the ones you can find on the Televue Everbrites or the A.P. maxbrights or even the Williams' etc.., instead of a short thing of only 26mm's! So this diagonal also went back pronto to Baader and once again I got a refund, no problems, but not for me anymore! By the way, a acquaintance of mine from France, told me his Baader 2" prism diagonal was not good neither! The prism was sitting completely loose in the housing and not collimated at all. He did not send it back, but stuck something between the diagonal and the housing to correct this! Not done once again i.m.o. with such expensive high-end equipment.
Just my 2 cents, yours may vary off course!

P.S. To end on a positive note,let me point out here that Baader has been correct about all this and immediatly gave me a 100% refund without any discussions whatsoever!
Clear Skies,
Lucien