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My replacement TS binoviewers have arrived in pristine condition. I have tried looking through them backwards and see no doubling like the first pair. Anything beyond a few yards was a fuzzy jumble on the first pair. Sharp and single images this time around.
The original pair was heavily cemented at the factory or I would have tried collimating them myself. As the prism adjustment screws were also coated over with some clear fluid I made no attempt to correct them.
Because I had been building my observatory, mounting and solar telescopes I never had a chance to try them out at higher powers. Unfortunately the misalignment was too much to overcome once I pushed the power beyond 60x.
It is wet and windy here today. So there is no possibility of trying them on a telescope until it calms down.
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I have unsuccessfully tried an upstand of plastic DPC on the top ring of the observatory. Just trying to back up the floppy rubber skirt in wet and windy weather. The same problem occurred when I tried to use the plastic strip as the actual skirt for the dome. It was just far too thin and flapped far too much. It also sagged flat under its own weight when I used it as an upstand. It used to be possible to get much thicker, plastic DPC, but not locally it seems. I may have to look at lawn edging or similar materials. My attempts to find affordable, aluminium, roofing strip were unsuccessful.
An update: I've found an affordable lawn edging in rolls of smooth, stiff black plastic. 150mm [6"] wide x 9m called Turfline Extra. Interestingly they do a 250mm width. Which would have been a better idea for the dome skirt because of its much greater stiffness compared with the rubber I used. Shame they chose 9m rolls because I need at least 10m for the dome's circumference. I have ordered a roll of the 15cm to make the upstand. I can judge whether it will make a much better dome skirt when I have the material in hand. The rubber is just too floppy, lifts in the wind and then rain can blow onto the top ring. It also folds and creases. Making the skirt look both flimsy and untidy.
An update: I've found an affordable lawn edging in rolls of smooth, stiff black plastic. 150mm [6"] wide x 9m called Turfline Extra. Interestingly they do a 250mm width. Which would have been a better idea for the dome skirt because of its much greater stiffness compared with the rubber I used. Shame they chose 9m rolls because I need at least 10m for the dome's circumference. I have ordered a roll of the 15cm to make the upstand. I can judge whether it will make a much better dome skirt when I have the material in hand. The rubber is just too floppy, lifts in the wind and then rain can blow onto the top ring. It also folds and creases. Making the skirt look both flimsy and untidy.
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