Binocular Tune Up With Collimation

Intro: Binocular Tune Up With Collimation

**This is my third instructabe. It was originally written for a magazine but was never published. Rather than rewriting the whole thing, I am posting it  as it was supposed to appear in the periodical**

So I'm at the Heart of America Star Party. I'm at the swap meet.  I'm browsing along and here's this fella with  quite a few pair of binoculars and other assorted optical instruments laid out on the table.  I look at some lens assemblies and porro prisms, glance at the spotting scopes and find myself at the binoculars.  I pick up a pair of 20x60s and look through them. I ask  the gentleman how much, fully expecting not to be able to afford them. After about the third time, my mind finally gets the message that yes, they are free. I ask to take them outside for a better look.

Satisfied that the binoculars were usable, I informed the gentleman that I would be glad to take them off his hands for him. A short time after getting back to my campsite, the luster of getting such a good deal was quickly wearing off.  I attached the binos on  my mount and looked at a distant tree. I almost immediately noticed I was having trouble fusing the two images reaching my eyes.  After attempting to adjust the inter-pupillary distance (IPD), and the focus for each eye individually with no improvement in the image, I realized that there was a deeper problem. Casually inspecting the binoculars showed that there was very thick and sticky grease around the right eyepiece housing and  adjusting the IPD caused the eyepieces to twist vertically. Still, I was confident that cleaning the dirty spots and lubricating the sticky spots would yield a functional set of binoculars.

STEP 1:

Jump to a few days later. I have the binoculars at the work bench.  Using a piece of sheet steel, I am able to release the screw that holds the eyepieces to the focusing rod. This allowed the eyepieces to be individually removed from the binoculars. A little more work with a lot of paper towels and some solvent (I used acetone) nicely cleaned up the excess grease. I reassembled the eyepieces and took a look.  I still had trouble fusing the images and the eyepieces were still floppy when adjusting the IPD. Its back to the work bench for me and my new binoculars.

A closer inspection of the binoculars revealed that the eyepiece flop was due to a looseness in the focusing mechanism. After removing the eyepieces, the focusing knob can be unscrewed and the entire focusing mechanism pulled out of the binocular body.  After much thought on how to improve the fit of the mechanism, I decided to clean the rod and add foil tape to improve the fit into the body.  Reassembly after some light lubrication revealed only a small improvement. The majority of the wiggle now seemed to be in the threads of the focuser. Reviewing my work so for, I have cleaned, tightened and lubricated most of the moving parts of the focuser. I am still having trouble fusing the images from each eye.

My eyes are good. Must be collimation.

STEP 2:

If you are like me, the idea of collimating binoculars causes a brief shudder to crawl across you. But do not fear! Now that I have done it, I can say that it is not that bad. Perhaps the trickiest part of collimation is finding the collimation mechanisms. I can say that the two pair of binos I now own appear quite different on the surface. However their basic concepts are the same. Provided the binoculars are not severely out of collimation, the collimation is accomplished using the porro prisms housed just in front of the eyepieces.  The prisms are held onto a mounting plate with a metal clip .  The arrowed screws in the images are the collimation screws that pass to the outside through the housing. They work by forcing the prisms to tilt within the optical path thereby shifting the view. Binocular designers like to hide these screws so they may not always be obvious. The 20x60s that I am working with have putty in the holes that matches the grip coating on the housing.  My 7x50 Nikons that already work wonderfully have the housing covered in a rubber cloak that has to be pried up to reach the screws.  Once the collimation screws are located the collimation can begin in earnest.

Before I began, I referred to the book,  "Basic Optics and Optical Instruments"  which is the civilian reprint of, "Opticalman 3&2" originally printed by the U.S. Navy.  It is a wonderful resource for binoculars and basic optical concepts. In it, it describes the navy's  method for optical procedures.  It describes the use of the Mk I  3x auxiliary telescope to assist in  collimation of binoculars. Not having  this specific scope is not a problem as any good, small finder scope will work. I used  a 6x30 finder with a cross-hair reticle with excellent results.

The goal of collimation is to have both sides of the binoculars pointing in exactly parallel directions. The book  I used declares that alignment vertically should be better that 2 minutes of arc (one side pointing higher than the other). The alignment left to right should be better than 2 minutes of arc inward (think of being cross-eyed) and 4 minutes of arc outward (the condition opposite of being cross-eyed).

STEP 3:

With this information in hand I was ready to collimate! First thing first, I mounted the binos in a solid mount. I took the setup outside and sighted a distant tower. Placing the finder scope between the eyepiece and the eye does two things, first, it magnifies the image by the product of the two devices (6x finder and a 20x binocular = 120x) Second, as with any increase in magnification, it restricts the field of view. This has the affect of forcing one to see only the center of the binoculars FOV. With the finder scope I aligned the left side of the binoculars on a tower in the distance. Next I sighted through the right side of the binoculars.  The place I saw is indicated as point "R1"  with point "L" being the place the left half of the binocular was pointed to. I selected one of the collimation screws and gave a small turn (less than 1/8 of a rotation) which caused the image to shift laterally. Trying the other collimation screw caused the image to shift vertically. To make a long story short, I pointed the right half of my binoculars to the point indicated by "R2". During the process, I repeatedly checked both the right and left optics to verify my progress. With collimation completed I filled the collimation screw holes with plumbers putty.

  My free binoculars are now working like a champ. I hope this instructables helps those of you with troublesome binoculars to get them up and running. Good luck and clear skies!

Comments

[jhmagill1]

I have an older Sans & Streiffe 8x40 that is out of collimation. The "bezel" of one of the large lenses is dented indicating that this was dropped or otherwise abused somewhere during it's life I looked very close and see no evidence of any collimation adjustments. I am going to remove the focuser and eyepieces to dig deeper. Is it possible that there are no external adjustments, or is it "they must be there and I haven't found them"? If there are no external adjustments, is there another process for collimating? Thanks

[georgeATM]

I am not familiar with that brand of binoculars but manufacturers are notorious for hiding the adjustment screws. I have a pair of Nikons that are completely covered in rubber so no screws are visible at all. It is also possible that the adjustment screws are hidden internally and can only be accessed after the eyepieces are removed. This would be much more difficult to adjust

[SomehowB]

any way to adjust a zoom binoculars?

i got Celestron G2 10-30 x 50 and the vertical adjustment only stays at a specific zoom. as soon as i zoom in/out it's off again.

[georgeATM]

are you saying the amount of zoom changes from one eyepiece to the other? adjusting the prisms won't change that. If the alignment changes when you zoom that could mean that the lenses that are moving to cause the zooming aren't moving parallel to each other. regrettably I don't know how to fix that.

[SomehowB]

no, not between pupils.

the collimation/image alignment changes when I change magnification (zoom).

I guess, u r right about prisms/lenses not moving in parallel.

I tried to 'fix' collimation only on the right side (to make correct vertical misalignment). I did that on the min (10x) zoom. I thought I was done. But then I zoomed in and noticed that vertical alignment is off again (at 20x).

[georgeATM]

Remember higher magnification makes everything larger, including the apparent misalignment. If you collimate at the higher magnification, then check the alignment at your lower magnification you may have a better result.

[SomehowB]

Unfortunately, it didn't help.

Forgot to say, sure I tried to alight it at 10x (the min), at 30x (the max) and at 20x (in the middle).

No luck. The image is only aligned at exactly the zoom I fixed it at. :(

I found another article and it says that for zoom binoculars (with variable magnification factor) it may require specialized equipment to adjust them.

[Fly4aWhiteGuy]

How do you adjust divergent/convergent axis on binoculars?
There are small set screws to adjust vertical collimation, but how can I adjust them horizontally if they are cross eyed or wall eyed (so to speak).
I have a cheap pair of Barska zoom binoculars (yeah, I know) which are misaligned horizontally. I expected some sort of eccentric or other adjustment at one of the hinge points, but can't find anything.

I also just bought a pair of 25x70 celestron binoculars listed as "for parts or repair".
I asked the seller to describe the problem, and it was described as double vision (sort of). I'm hoping they only need vertical adjustment, but if not, I will need to know for them too.

[georgeATM]

I can't speak to any particular brand of bino but, as described, one of the prism adjustments will adjust the view horizontally which will allow you to correct the issue you are experiencing.

[Fly4aWhiteGuy]

I only have two adjustment screws (one on each barrel)... but I found out that the movement is at 45°, so if I move both screws the same way, it adjusts divergence / convergence. Here is a really good "how to" : http://www.oberwerk.com/support/collimate.htm

[Fly4aWhiteGuy]

Actually, what I found out was that each screw adjusts that side at 45°, so if you adjust both sides in the same direction, it will make them converge or diverge.

[Fly4aWhiteGuy]

I only have two adjustment screws (one on each barrel)... but I found out that the movement is at 45°, so if I move both screws the same way, it adjusts divergence / convergence. Here is a really good "how to" : http://www.oberwerk.com/support/collimate.htm

[georgeATM]

Pictured here is the auxiliary telescope with the rhomboid prism. This is a very specialized piece of equipment that helps perform the collimation exactly as Mr. Cook describes and is unfortunately beyond the typical home optician. The method I describe will be useful for aligning the optical axes of the two halves of the binos (the most obvious source of eye strain). Carefully aligning the finder body with the bino eyepieces and being mindful of vignetting will help minimize some misalignment during collimation. Adding a right angle prism or two to the finder will NOT improve your collimation.

[William Cook]

Hi:

I want to be nice, but I MUST point out a negative. The 6x30 scope might work out fine . . . IF you had the rhomboid prism attachment, as thoroughly illustrated in your reference. Without that, you can't check the mechanical axis vs. the optical axis. That is the WHOLE point of the procedure. 99.9% of the illustrations on the Internet are well-meaning enough . . . but wrong.

William Cook. Chief Opticalman, USNR-Ret.

[rimar2000]

Very useful, thanks for sharing.

[tholopotami]

Useful information! I also needed to calibrate a pair of 7x50 binoculars with good quality lenses but a mediocre focusing wheel (plastic). The problem there , was that the focusing did not move parallel to the lens plane. In some binoculars you need to open in order to reach the prisms. Moving them is a bit scary. The use of the finderscope is a good idea.

[georgeATM]

Glad to give some ideas. You may also be able to tilt the objective lenses to align them with the focusing mechanism. I would caution against this however because it would mean that the eyepieces would also need tilted and I am not sure this is possible.