April of 2024 will be a very busy month at Oberwerk. Events include the April 8th Eclipse (Dayton is in the path of totality), a move to a much larger building, exhibiting at the NEAF (NorthEast Astronomy Forum) Convention (Apr. 20, 21), and a week-long visit with our business partners from Kunming, China, including a celebration dinner for friends and family at the new building. Somehow all this will happen within the month of April! We will effectively be closed after our return from NEAF for one week as we transition from the current location to the new location at 3880 Kettering Blvd., Dayton, OH 45439. Our 937-640-1040 phone number will not change, and our website will remain up and accepting orders- but those won’t ship until late-April. Our new location will feature a large showroom area, with all Oberwerk products on display. Visitors are welcome, but by appointment only please, simply due to personnel constraints.
Oberwerk has enjoyed the position as the top choice among astronomy enthusiasts for years, but recently birders have taken notice of our high quality compact binoculars. The birding market has largely been dominated by exorbitantly expensive luxury binoculars that, while nice, provide a diminishing return in quality for every dollar spent. Keeping in line with Oberwerk’s mission to make high quality optics available at a reasonable price, our Sport Series and SE Series are ideal for birders. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology recently reviewed our 8×42 Sport ED binocular and they agree!
Here’s a quick excerpt:
For birders looking for excellent image quality at a relatively low price, the Oberwerk Sport ED is an impressive option. These compact, slightly heavy binoculars got our reviewers’ attention with bright and very crisp images. The colors are true without seeming overly saturated. Even against the glare of a gray sky, we were impressed with the gradation of grays and tans in the fur of an eastern gray squirrel as it nibbled the vivid buds of a red maple.
The Sport ED has been our most popular binocular in recent years. The ED glass provides amazing image quality and the metal focus wheel and diopter feel fantastic in operation. Featuring lightweight magnesium-alloy construction, with attractive textured dark green rubber armor and red anodized trim.
Test driving the Oberwerk Sport ED 8 x 42 has been nothing short of a revelation. Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, along comes an instrument like this that upsets the apple cart.
For most of our 25-year existence, we’ve only sold direct to our customers, the exception being a limited selection of our smaller binoculars that we supply to Amazon. But here at Oberwerk, we’re getting serious about growing our brand. So after much discussion and negotiation, we’ve decided to partner with B&H Photo and Video– the world’s largest and most-respected dealer of optical goods, as well as other high-tech gear for enthusiasts. While Oberwerk celebrates 25 years in the optics business, B&H is celebrating 50 years! As they say on their website “B&H is a group of people who are passionate about the things you’re passionate about”. Their customer reviews are universally excellent and they’re also trustworthy. Our customers know the same is true for us, so we believe this will be a great match- and it will allow us to reach many more new customers than we could on our own. B&H is also as good as it gets with international shipping. For our customers outside the USA, B&H should be able to provide the lowest-possible shipping rates, brokerage services, and options for prepaid duty and VAT.
We also expect to soon have some Oberwerk products on display in B&H’s incredible 70,000 sq. ft. New York City SuperStore. So the next time you’re in Manhattan, be sure to stop in!
Oberwerk is the official binocular supplier to Homestead, from Angel Studios. Homestead is a hope-filled post-apocalyptic thriller TV series, based on the best-selling Black Autumn series of books by Jayson Orvis, who was also one of the co-founders of Black Rifle Coffee Company. It’s an action-packed show that highlights the importance of family and faith after the end of the world. Actor Neal McDonough, most recently seen as “the villain” in the Yellowstone series, plays the lead character Jason Ross. He’s also appeared in Band of Brothers, Minority Report, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The 100. Angel Studios is best-known for their recent box office hit Sound of Freedom. A variety of Oberwerk binocular models are expected to be featured in the series, including the 10×42 SE, the 20×65 ED Deluxe, and a BT-82XL-ED, as well as our 4000 and TR3 tripods- with other Oberwerk models to possibly appear in future episodes. Watch the trailer for the pilot episode below. Coming in 2024.
Are you ready for the next solar eclipse? On October 14th, an annular solar eclipse will be viewable from a swath from Oregon through Texas. The rest of the USA will experience a partial eclipse. An annular eclipse means that the Moon is at or near its farthest point from Earth. Therefore it’s smaller, and won’t totally obscure the Sun. This creates an amazingly bright ring around the moon called the annulus.
In the map below, you can see the path the annular solar eclipse will take. Check out Great American Eclipse for more details if you would like to plan a trip to view this amazing event.
Nothing beats seeing a solar event like this with your own eyes, but it’s no different than looking directly at the sun. Viewing an eclipse with the naked eye can severely damage the eyes. Fortunately, there are ways to safely observe an annular eclipse.
A photograph of an annular eclipse. With the proper equipment, you’ll be able to capture your own image of the annular eclipse.
Solar Filters for Binoculars
To safely view the annular eclipse with binoculars, you’ll need a pair of solar filters. While some create Oberwerk customers have created custom-made solar filters, we offer a more elegant solution. Oberwerk carries Seymour solar filters, which are custom fit for all Oberwerk binoculars (42mm and larger). Seymour Helios thin-film has a consistent yellow-orange solar image, with higher contrast than competitor’s filters. For binoculars capable of magnifications greater than 25x (our XL Series), we also offer Seymour Premium Glass filters, for highest possible resolution. The filters snugly fit over the objective end of the binocular so the sunlight is safely filtered before it enters the binocular. Most sizes are still in stock, but they’re selling out quickly!
Seymour Solar filters. Get the perfect fit for all your Oberwerk binoculars.
Check out the products below to get ready for your annular eclipse watch party. Get a digiscoping adapter for photography and a beverage/eyepiece tray to keep organized.
Our friends at Binomania recently got their hands on two of our new SE (Special Edition) models- the 8×32 and 12×50. The following reviews are in Italian, but you can turn on closed captioning and select your language.
Neil English was so impressed with our new SE Series Porro prism binoculars that he wanted to check out one of our roof prism models. We sent the 8×42 Sport ED, here is his review.
NEAF (Northeast Astronomy Forum), held at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY, is the world’s largest astronomy convention. Oberwerk normally exhibits there every year, but the event has been cancelled for the last 3 years due to Covid. It’s finally back on for the weekend of Apr. 15th. We’ll be there demoing every binocular in the Oberwerk product line, as well as our various tripods and mounts. We’re not bringing any inventory to sell, but we can relay orders to our office in Dayton, OH, and those will ship the following week (no sales tax, free shipping). We’ll be giving away our beloved Oberwerk pens, as well as Oberwerk eyepatches for telescope users- because telescopes are for one-eyed pirates 😉 Our booth location is 123-127, look for the banner below. Stop by and say hello!
Dr. Neil English is the author of seven books in amateur and professional astronomy. His new book, Choosing and Using Binoculars: A Guide for Stargazers, Birders and Outdoor Enthusiasts will be published later this year. When Neil heard the announcement of the Oberwerk SE Series, he asked to be placed on the pre-order list for an 8×32 SE so he could do a product review, and we obliged. It didn’t take long for him to form an opinion, and here’s the link to the full review on his website. It’s not a quick read, so if you’re in a hurry, (spoiler alert) here’s the summary- “It goes without saying that this product gets my highest possible recommendation.“
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services.
Necessary
Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
Preferences
Preference cookies enable a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.
Statistics
Statistic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.
Marketing
Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers.
