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Help with my bins


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I bought some bins last year Sakura 10x-90x80 not sure what I should be able to see with them? I get great views of the moon but wondering what I would need to see Saturn, everyone is talking about viewing it & I really want to be able to see the rings...

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Slow down Appleblossom...takes awhile for everyone to see your question! :)

I've never used Sakura so cannot really comment on their optical quality. However, for what they cost (about £25) they may be ok (ish)...The 'ish' being they probably are not terribly bright or crisp at higher magnifications, and I doubt your will find the view useful without a tripod mount - handholding at mags over 12-15× is wobbly! And tiring....

But, to your main question about Saturn: my answer, not ever having tried Sakura bins, is....'maybe'. I have a 60× Meade spotting scope which surprised me one night by showing a (very dim but...) recogniseable Saturn, inc ring ( you couldnt tell if there were 'rings' plural). This would have been on a tripod or at the very least jammed against a window frame or whatnot.

So try it! Why not?

They won't be great astro-bins, and maybe not even good ones ( very bright points of light like stars and planets are tricky in cheap optics, and zooms are not great at budget levels ) but as a general purpose pair they may be OK, and they may - and I hope they do :) - show you Saturn. But will be better I think on the Moon...which is lovely also...my 20x60 show Saturn as a bright oval shape and occasionally hint at a ring separate to the planet - but I think that's just wishful looking on my part!

Let us know how you get on.

......Appleblossom?

........Applebl.......???........no-one there?!

:D :D :D

Sorry - too obvious to resist!

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I bought some bins last year Sakura 10x-90x80 not sure what I should be able to see with them? I get great views of the moon but wondering what I would need to see Saturn, everyone is talking about viewing it & I really want to be able to see the rings...

I'll be blunt, Appleblossom: there is no such thing as a good zoom binocular.

If I were you, I'd get a decent fixed magnification binocular, but you need to be magnifying at least 20x to have a good chance of seeing the rings of Saturn: that means a mounted binocular. A decent 20x60 will do the trick, but binoculars are not the instrument of choice for lunar and planetary observing: their strengths lie in the larger, brighter deep sky objects and asterisms, etc. You'd be better off getting a decent binocular in the 8x40 to 10x50 range for the things that binoculars are good at and, depending on your budget, a reasonable refractor or Maksutov for lunar/planetary. Always worth looking at http://ukastrobuysell.com/ for used stuff (last year I got a good 90mm Evostar and mount for a friend for only £50) or http://www.astroboot.co.uk/AstroBoot (sometimes some very good deals there).

For more advice on choosing binoculars, see http://binocularsky.com/binoc_choosing.php and feel free to ask any questions.

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Thank you both for coming back to me...

I get your joke Ghostdance...


......Appleblossom?


........Applebl.......???........no-one there?!



:D :D :D

Sorry - too obvious to resist!

Very funny ;) Patience is not a word I am familiar with, but I will work on it!

I will look up the bins you have suggested & see how i go, I do have a telescope too & been advised to get a Barlow lens to help things out, fingers crossed!

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I do have a telescope too & been advised to get a Barlow lens to help things out, fingers crossed!

Before you invest in a Barlow:

* What telescope do you have?

* What eyepieces do you have?

* Be aware that, unless a Barlow is of good quality, it will degrade the image. (See http://astunit.com/astunit_tutorial.php?topic=barlow )

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OK, we're getting a little OT for the binoculars forum so we probably ought to move this elsewhere if we're continuing on the Barlow theme. However, for the sake of continuity:

Your telescope should have come with two eyepieces, 20mm (giving x20) and 10mm (giving x40). You should easily be able to see that Saturn has rings with the 10mm. If you can't, then increasing the magnification isn't likely to help a lot. What you might try is just removing the central part of the lens cap: it will sharpen the image a lot (at the expense of brightness, but that will not be a problem for Saturn); will also work for the Moon.

If I were you, I would not bother with a Barlow, for several reasons:

* A decent one that will not degrade the image will cost more than the entire scope package did.

* The cheap ones tend to be x2; it will effectively turn your 20mm eyepiece into a 10mm eyepiece (so no gain there) and your 10mm into a 5mm (giving x80). You are probably already finding that the tripod is a tad wobbly - at x80 it will be hugely frustrating.

* If you really want to try pushing up the magnification, you'd be better off doing it with another eyepiece, but limit yourself to say a 7mm (x57) or 6mm (x66) at the most, but I strongly suggest sticking with what you have and learning to get the best out of that first before spending any more money.

I hope that helps.

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