Monthly Archives: November 2022

Astronomy Magazine has awarded the Oberwerk BT-127XL-SD as a “2022 Star Product”. “Welcome to the 12th annual Star Products awards. This year, as in the past, we scoured the market in search of the 35 best new and unique astro products. Our winners this year, presented in no particular order, offer a mix for newbie and veteran hobbyists alike. #19. Oberwerk recently introduced the BT-127XL-SD, the largest member of its binocular telescope family. The glossy white binoscope pairs two identical 127mm apochromatic refractors. Each has a fully-coated three element objective lens made of FCD100 and FK-61 glass to eliminate false color. Despite the size of the large objective lenses and prism assemblies, the BT-127XL-SD weighs only 24.5 lbs (11 kg). It comes with two 14mm eyepieces and a heavy-duty case with wheels for easy transport. A mount is sold separately.”

If you don’t wear glasses, eyepiece eye relief is usually not a concern. Even if you do need corrective lenses for farsightedness or nearsightedness, our binoculars usually have enough range in their focusers to compensate for your correction, allowing you to observe with glasses off. But if your glasses are correcting for astigmatism, you’ll probably get sharper views by keeping your glasses on- in which case eye relief will be an important specification. If it’s too short, you won’t be able to see the entire field of view when wearing glasses. There’s always been a difference between binocular manufacturer’s eye relief specification and actual usable eye relief. Whether it’s space taken up by whatever style eyecup is utilized, or a recess from the top of the eyepiece to the actual lens, manufacturer’s eye relief specifications have always been exaggerated to some degree- until now. Introducing ROAMER (Ridiculously Over-engineered Accurate Measure of Eye Relief), which Oberwerk will now use to provide precise usable eye relief specifications for every Oberwerk binocular. Note that these new specifications will make Oberwerk binoculars appear to have less eye relief than binoculars from other brands. But that’s not the case- our eyepieces are no worse than others in this regard, and they’re often better- but at least you’ll have accurate information from now on.

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