A 3D-printed binoscope

WHEN ROBERT ASUMENDI looked through a binocular telescope, he realised several things at once:

• Binocular vision is vastly more comfortable and pleasurable than monovision. (So much so that Hans Lippershey had to build a binocular before the patent office would even consider his patent application for the telescope in 1608.)

• Binocular vision helps to compensate for Robert’s severe astigmatism.

• Despite wanting a binocular scope, he also wanted grab-and-go portability, wide fields and enough aperture to provide satisfying views of deep sky objects.

Robert searched for a scope that would satisfy all his requirements but came up empty. “There’s no commercial scope that delivers all those things,”