Telescope Reviews: Tiny Eyes - Ron Bhanukitsiri (Denk Binoviewer)

Ron Bhanukitsiri (Denkmeier Binoviewer)

The Denkmeier Binoviewer is very nice and after I checked up on the price, very reasonable indeed! When I first receive the binoviewer, it was very confusing which pieces goes where being new to binoviewer. The instruction on the web site left room for interpretation as I find it hard to tell which is part of C. A label that matches the diagram on each of the pieces themselves would be nice.

The star party was conducted on 07/11/03 with a 12-day moon. Not ideal, but it was the only time I could get all of the kids together. There were 5 children all together: 4 girls and one boy (from 3rd grade to 6 grade). The telescopes I used for the star party were a 4-inch Tele Vue 102 APO refractor and an 8-inch Discovery Dobsonian. The binoviewer goes onto the refractor which is mounted on a GEM with a driven drive. The object the children viewed was the moon as everything else were washed out. Three of kids have never looked at the moon through a telescope before. The binoviewer was deployed with a set of 32mm GTO Plossl nd 2.5X (Part C?) yielding 68x on the moon. The Dob was deployed with a 20mm Tele Vue Plossl yielding 60x. I had to show each kids how to nudge the Dob. The star party lasted for about 2 hours.

The kids took their turns at both scopes. Immediately, they complained that the moon was blinding and whether the bright light would injure their eyes. I reassured them that it would not and slipped on a Moon filter which gave a pleasing view to them afterward. No one complained about the brightness level of the binoviewer through the refractor. Lots of ooohs, aaahs, and wows. One of the girls expressed how the crater (I forgot which one) makes the moon looked like a navel orange. They went off and play and came back for more view on an off. Afterward, I asked everyone to vote which view they like best. 4 of the kids voted for the binoviewer but one girl insisted she likes the view of the "cyclop" through the Dob better! Incidentally, I thought everyone would complain about nudging the Dob, but no one did!

(pictures forthcoming)

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