Telescope Reviews: New Garrett RA 70mm's

I just purchased a pair of the Garrett 20/25x70mm RA bino's from Zach at Garrett, as always- a pleasure to do business with. It was, however- a week before I could get the out to try to see if I wanted to keep them. Finally last night, I got them out- but just for a very short period of time. It was a hot evening, humid as could be- I took the bino's out in their case over an hour before dark, opened the case 1/2 hour before setting them up to view- to try to let them acclimate to the warmer air outside from the A/C inside environment they'd been in. Obviously I didn't allow enough time, as when I got them set up, the right eyepiece especially clouded up almost immediately, the result of the bino's colder temp maintained in the warmer, more humid environment. Just had enough time to determine that they come to pinpoint focus on stars, focus across the FOV will be acceptable, and on the moon, false color was not bad enough to be an issue. Collimation was fine. The exit pupils- Zach had sent me pictures of before I got the bino's when he was testing them- they are, indeed round. Haven't measured the exit pupil yet, but I will. This was with the 20x eyepieces, probably the only ones these bino's will see use with. One other owner of these Garrett's isn't too happy with the 25x eyepieces- and may try toe Orion's 16x eyepieces. I hadn't thought of that.
I've got mine mounted on an Oberwerk surveyors tripod- topped with an 8" Helix alt-az mount. It was a tiny bit too small to fit the bino's- so I ended up having to make some aluminum spacers to widen out the width of the mount about .125": even so, I still have to remove the cover caps over the side mounted threaded inserts for the mount to fit!
I either need to provide some heat to these bino's- to keep them from dewing up so badly- or allow more time for them to acclimate to the heat and humidity. Either that, or they'll be winter bino's!
I am in the process of having a bracket machined that will allow me to mount a laser pen in place of the handle- which will be handy for pointing the bino's. Will post a picture of that when I get it back from the machinist.
Anyway, I know that there have been some unhappiness in some of the RA bino's, at least I was able to determine these will be keepers- a fact which will make Zenith viewing much more enjoyable than it has been to date.
The sliding dewshields have a snug, smooth feel to them- the metal objective caps are a snug fit that requires a bit of care to put on or take off, but have a quality feel to them- much better than some of the junk out there- and caps are provided for the focusers- open when no eyepieces are installed- and for both ends of both pairs of eyepieces. The quality and fit of all the caps are appreciated. They come in a white bag- with a pair of white gloves... not sure of the need for them?!?! If the bino's were black, mebbe...
Anyway- I'm satisfied with these so far, and cannot wait to check them out further when I don't get "dewed-out".

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Wes
Atlantic Beach, FL

Some bino’s from Miyauchi 5x32 Binon's up through Garrett 20x110 Signature's,
Some telescopes from a Stellarvue 80mm NHNG up through a couple of 8” reflectors…
And a wonderful 4.25" Delmarva Shiefspiegler!
Some good friends, made here on C/N.
Oh- several cats and a wonderful wife!
Anyone want a cat???? :-O

"When your work speaks for itself- Don't Interrupt" -Gamble Rogers

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