bINOCULAR MOUNT CONVERSION

For a couple of bucks, you can easily make a binocular adapter for use with a fork-mounted tripod. While this arrangement won't allow you to view at the zenith, for most views, it works fine. And it sure beats hand-steadying the binoculars!

To create the adapter, I cut a small piece of 2"x2" board, about 1/4" shorter than the distance between the prongs of the fork mount. Then I screwed in a mending brace to the wood block and attached the binoculars to the other end of the brace with a 1/4-20 bolt. In the pictures below, I actually connected two mending braces together, because I didn't have a long enough one. If you buy one at least 4" long, you should be able to get away with a single brace.

To use, just insert the wood block between the fork mount prongs and tighten the lockdown screw. To change the altitude of the binoculars, just loosen the lockdown screw enough to rotate the block of wood, then tighten again. Azimuth is controlled by the fork mounting. Simple, huh?

10x50 binoculars mounted on tripod

Closeup of homemade tripod adapter

User view of setup