Binoculars

[cutepetgroomer]

I found. A decent pair of binoculars today at the local thrift store. They say binolux 8-24x50 on them. I couldn't pass them up and they are an early Christmas gift from my dear hubby. I was able to test them out before purchase. I have seen either Uranus or Neptune earlier with them as well as what I think is the andromeda Galaxy though it seem sort of faint. They can also be attached to a tripod as well. So far I'm pleased with my hubby's investment. I just need some advice on how zoom binoculars actually work and what is best for the star gazing . I know these will be my General purpose binoculars as I also use binoculars at the zoo when doing animal observations

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Zoom binoculars are not really recommended for astronomy, due to lower optical quality and narrower field of view, but if you get them cheap, you can always give them a shot and see how well they do. The lower end of the magnification scale will be best.

[cutepetgroomer]

What is considerrd to be the lower end of the magnification scale?

[Stu]

Michael means operating them zoomed fully out ie at x8 magnification, or maybe up a little to x10. This will give the widest field and will mean they are easier to hand hold.

Often these zoom binoculars are not great and can easily be out of collimation (ie it is impossible to merge the two images). This error gets worse the more magnification you use.

It sounds like yours may be ok though?

Hope you enjoy them

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

As Stu says, I meant the 8x setting, or thereabouts. There should be a lever on or near the eyepieces which allow selection of the magnification. Setting it to 8x should give the best quality and brightest results, as a rule. You can then try if higher magnification works for you. The latter is a very personal thing. I can hand hold 15x70 binoculars, and even found 20x80 manageable, but most people have difficulty at or above 10x.

[cutepetgroomer]

Yeah mine are okay . The two images merge pretty good. As I said already these are meant to be general purpose and I plan to use them for everything