TheSkySearchers-Welcome!

After picking them up for the first time today, they definitely weigh more than the 36lbs I was told.
I would guess they weigh between 50-60lbs (not including the mount).
I’ll weigh them later and post an exact weight.

Also...
For perspective’s sake, I’m 6ft 1 inch and weigh 260lbs.

Well that’s embarrassing...

It’s right there in my own post...

23.3 kg or 51.37 lbs

Duh

So... have you looked through them?? Inquiring minds want to know.

Yes. I’ve used them for some terrestrial targets. I haven’t had the opportunity to use them stargazing yet. The pic of me standing with them was taken an hour after I picked them up in San Francisco. I drove 12 hours (both ways). Very good optics. Not coated though. I’m curious to see how much false color they might show on night sky targets.

I’ve decided to have Cory Suddarth at Suddarth Optical do a complete restoration on them ( IPD, eccentric rings & focusers cleaned out and re-lubed. All lenses cleaned, seated and re-sealed. Collimation and zero diopters set on their US Navy collimator ). He’s also gonna polish all bare metal to a mirror finish.

They ought to essentially be “like new” inside and out when he’s finished.

I have heard that Mr. Suddarth does good work.

Those look HUGE!
Especially with those shoes in the background.
The mount looks scary to me though. Not enough spread for the size of the load.
Have fun with them!

I agree completely Sonny. The mount is built like a tank and very heavy, but the guy that made it screwed up and didn’t make the base wide enough. The heavy binoculars make it easy to tip if not careful.
One of the first things I’m gonna do is design and fabricate some flip out “stabilizing legs” that will give the mount a much wider footprint.
That should make it much more stable.

....or I might find a heavy antique film camera tripod and fabricate a way to attach the fork mount to it.

Can't give you a price. My astronomy mentor was in the army. He retired as a Colonel but during WWII was an NCO acting as an interrogator/interpreter and seconded to American intelligence. His dad was a diplomat and he went to school in Japan.

He was present at the surrender of a Japanese battleship at the end of the war and scored himself a pair of 25x125 Nikon binos from the bridge area.

They were like these but in black finish, not chrome.
https://intrepid-design.co.uk/vintage-n ... inoculars/

They were quite fantastic for taking a spacewalk along the Milky Way on a dark moonless night. I think you'll enjoy yours.

Joe

Thanks for the post Oz. On Cloudynights, there has been a big debate whether they are unrestored or not and whether ANY Japanese Big Eyes were ever black in color originally. I was of the opinion that mine were unrestored, but after speaking with Cory Suddarth, I discovered that at least a partial restoration was done to my pair due to the bare brass of the prism housings.

Your post stating that your mentor owned a black pair of Big Eyes helps confirm that mine are mostly original.

Thanks!

Saganwannabe wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 3:34 pm Thanks for the post Oz. On Cloudynights, there has been a big debate whether they are unrestored or not and whether ANY Japanese Big Eyes were ever black in color originally. I was of the opinion that mine were unrestored, but after speaking with Cory Suddarth, I discovered that at least a partial restoration was done to my pair due to the bare brass of the prism housings.

Your post stating that your mentor owned a black pair of Big Eyes helps confirm that mine are mostly original.

Thanks!

His binos were Nikon 25x125 not Toko 20x120 so not a direct comparison.

Also, they need a lot of mounting. He had them on a Unitron 4" refractor ALTAZ mount for many years and they weren't particularly useable. Then he put them on a heavier mount and that changed everything.

He had an old railway bogie (steel wheel and bearing). This rested on the ground and acted as the AZ axis. A 4" steel post rose from this and the ALT axis was set at a height that pointed about 1" below the ear - the centre of rotation of your head. An adjustable L-shaped arm and various counterweights then held the binos out in front of your eyes. The result, you could walk around the post to adjust AZ and as you scanned up, the eyepieces just stayed with your eyes. When mounted on a typical tripod with the ALT axis in front of you, the eyepieces drop down as the objectives point up.

Enjoy

Joe

Sounds like a variation on the parallelogram style binocular mount. I made one for my Celestron Skymaster 20x80’s (see attached picture).

I’m considering making a heavy duty parallelogram mount for the Big Eyes out of oak and an antique tripod.

Saganwannabe wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 6:00 am Sounds like a variation on the parallelogram style binocular mount. I made one for my Celestron Skymaster 20x80’s (see attached picture).

I’m considering making a heavy duty parallelogram mount for the Big Eyes out of oak and an antique tripod.

Nothing like a parallelogram. Much better. Clearly my description leaves "room for improvement."
Unfortunately, I don't have a photo.

Joe

It definitely sounds way cooler than any “plain vanilla” parallelogram mount. I was speaking in more general terms of overall function. How it allows bino observers comfortable views of the entire night sky from any height/angle.
His mount must have been enormous to support those big Nikon Binos.

Very cool. I wish you had pictures.

Very interesting mount there.

Thanks Helicon. I just used what I had around the house to make it, but it works great. The main body and tripod of the mount is a high hat stand from an old drum set. The “heart” of the mount (it’s what I like to call it anyway) is carved from a piece of solid oak, JB Weld, and a heavy duty ABS handle with a steel insert threaded to accept a 5/16 inch bolt. It’s the pivot point of the mount and supports the weight of both the optics and the counterweights.