A zero gravity chair works best to meet all of the requirements for a comfortable fully functional binocular chair. From our experience, it has been determined that all other chair styles will have one kind of limitation or another. There should be some open steel tubing near the tops of the sides of the chair’s backrest, that has no attached fabric or elastic cord. Here your teeter mount can be clamped and can slide up and down to match the heights of various users. It’s best to get a chair with a substantial head cushion for neck support. The cushion should not be attached to the backrest frame, but instead to the backrest fabric.
A chair’s width is typically measured between the outer edges of the armrests. A width of 29″ or less is often best, although a somewhat wider chair will work as well. A 29″ chair is often designated as XL. The front of the chair extends well out, and is a great location for a counterweight because of the leverage. These chairs often have a tray table and a way to lock the tilt of the backrest.
Some may wish to rotate their chair by pushing with their feet on the ground instead of using the hand driven wheel. In this case, any standard tube frame chair can be used, as long as your feet stay on the ground comfortably. Again, there should be some open steel tubing, not covered with fabric, on the tops of the sides of the chair’s backrest. There will be a limitation to the comfortable viewing elevation when using these chairs. This would be a good choice if the intention is for daytime nature viewing only, since not much elevation is normally needed for this. You could leave the chair set up on your porch or by your window.
Any chair which reclines substantially should consider counterbalancing the front of the chair. This will help prevent the chair from tipping back, and will assist when returning the chair to an upright position.
One can avoid building the entire rotating azimuth control component by using a swiveling “orbit-beach-chair”. However there would likely be some instability and viewing elevation limitation. Tipping over is even possible without weight leverage at the front.
It’s generally much better to use a zero gravity chair, preferably a sturdy one. These chairs tilt back very far, as your legs rise comfortably. If you want to view all the way up to zenith, you then just arch your neck a little. The nape of your neck will be supported by a large cushion.
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