|
|
On this page I review my pair of 15x70 Barska binoculars. They are my
mainstay binoculars for astronomical viewing. I'm always amazed by what I
can see with 70mm lenses.
If you want to know more, read on.
|
|
The Purchase
I purchased my Barska 15x70 binoculars as an impulse when I saw them advertised in a catalog. The price seemed pretty incredible at something like $60.
|
To be cautious, I checked out Barska on the web, and other than the fact that they made low priced binoculars, I didn't find anything terribly incriminating about them.
|
|
|
Troubles in Paradise
So -- I bit.
When I got the binoculars I couldn't wait to look through them. Like my old 7x50s, they made objects that are relatively nearby have a very pronounced 3-D look because of the wide lens spread.
They also gave crisp images. Well, almost. The right barrel gave super images, the left just wouldn't come to a crisp focus.
I went out at night a few times to test them on some of my favorite star objects. Again, if I closed my left eye I was presented with incredible high-populated star fields in crisp focus. When I looked through both eyes, the image wasn't as good, caused by the poor focus of the left barrel.
|
I set them aside, rather deflated. It was a major disappointment to have something that was almost great, but fell short. I lost interest.
A few times I got them out again to view a comet or two, and eventually
realized that they were poorly aligned. That really disappointed me. Then I
began to wonder, could the alignment be behind the focus problem?
Browsing the web, I ran across a review
site where another person had the same alignment issue. He gave some
instructions on how to fix the problem. Following his advice, I was able to get
the alignment straightened out.
Unfortunately, alignment did nothing to fix the problem of poor focus in the
left barrel.
|
My Astro T-Shirt Designs
|
|
Salvation
Examining the Barska web site I discovered a contact number. Calling it I found that for a small fee, I could send the binoculars back and have them either fixed or replaced.
I sent them in, and a few weeks later received a new pair. I couldn't complain about that.
On the new pair, both barrels focused properly. That was the good news.
The bad news is that this pair was also poorly aligned. But now I knew the
solution to that problem. I went through the alignment procedure again, and now
I have a great pair of binoculars for astronomy. A couple of comets later I can
say I'm quite happy with the result. The ghostly comet 17P/Holmes was easily
resolvable.
The binoculars, for their size, are remarkably light. Even so, as I
discussed in my binocular tutorial,
the higher magnification of the Barskas (15x) makes them difficult to hand
hold. I have to lean my arms against something when stargazing to see
comfortably, and even that type of support makes viewing marginal.
|
|
I did make the simple L bracket for my tripod as shown in the
binocular tutorial, and that helps significantly. It isn't that useful,
however, when the object I want to watch is nearly straight up. I guess a lawn
chair would be the best solution for that dilemma.
I have not yet tried making one of the parallelogram tripod mounts. It's a project for another day, but I suspect I'd get a lot more good out of the binoculars if I invested the time in making such a mount.
|
|
| 
