Here is an outstanding post written by Stephen Tonkin, author of The Binocular Sky newsletter, and contributor to BBC Sky at Night magazine. He summarizes what goes into comfortable binocular viewing. The original post is at stargazerslounge.com/topic/131940-improved-binocular-mount/. The transcript is as follows:
“There are several different issues involved with comfortable binocular viewing:
- For objects above about 45°, if you don’t want neck ache, you need something that enables you not to have to tilt your head back.
- If you use a tripod without something that holds the binocular away from the tripod, sooner or later your legs and the tripod’s will compete for the same space.
- Whatever you use will need to have easy height (and, if you are seated, lateral) adjustment unless the center of rotation of the binocular is the same as the center of rotation of your head.
- The turning moment on a traditional tripod head increases as the angle you are observing at increases.
“Some solutions:
• Mirror mounts (I loathe them, but many like them) effectively solve or eliminate all of the issues above, but introduce new ones, like a reversed sky view, dewing, and difficulty in locating objects.
• A StarChair1 bino-chair solves all of the above, but introduces issues of storage, transport — oh, and expense!
• Many DIY bino-chairs solve all of the above issues.
• A reclining observing position solves #1 above.
• Angled eyepieces solve issue #1 above.
• Tripods are useful for supporting anything you use in #2 above (e.g. a parallelogram mount or a lateral extension arm). Ideally this will be counterbalanced, or the tripod will be supporting a cantilevered load and there is a risk of tipping.
• An adjustable center post on the tripod solves #3.
• Parallelogram mounts solve #2 and #3 (and if properly designed, #4).
“IMO there is a gap in the market for a spring-counterbalanced system (a bit like an angle-poise lamp) that is mounted rigidly on the top bar of a recliner and behaves like an adjustable version of the mounting arm of the StarChair1. Until I get around to making it, my preferred solutions are:
• For up to 10×50: hand-held + recliner
• For 15×70 straight-through: recliner + monopod + trigger-grip ball-head OR recliner + parallelogram
• For 100mm or larger: angled eyepieces + parallelogram.”
1The StarChair he mentioned above was a motorized bino-chair that is no longer in production.
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