Which Bino's?

[steve_bham]

One of the items I want to have in my astro box is a good pair of binoculars that I can quickly grab or mount on a tripod when I go camping, which out of the 3 pairs do you think will be the best one?

Revelation 25x100

Revelation 20x80

Revelation 15x70

Revelation Binoculars

[Carbon Brush]

All of these are (in my opinion) high enough magnification, and physically big enough to require trpod mount.

Over to the experts....

[tsmith001]

Hi

just bought the revelation 20x80. Really good value £75 from telescope house delivered next day.

Chunky piece of kit and can be handheld for short periods of time

You will need a tripod and the mount isnt that great but it works.

[Grunthos]

One of the items I want to have in my astro box is a good pair of binoculars that I can quickly grab or mount on a tripod when I go camping, which out of the 3 pairs do you think will be the best one?

Revelation 25x100

Revelation 20x80

Revelation 15x70

Revelation Binoculars

Why Revelation? (I used to have one, found it adequate but ultimately insipid...)

What is your budget? There may be "better" alternatives e.g. 15x70 Centre focus Strathspey Giant - a Kunming BA1 variant. There is also a lot to be said for a decent 10x50...

Have you had a look at suggestions for choosing a binocular?

[steve_bham]

Why Revelation? (I used to have one, found it adequate but ultimately insipid...)

What is your budget? There may be "better" alternatives e.g. 15x70 Centre focus Strathspey Giant - a Kunming BA1 variant. There is also a lot to be said for a decent 10x50...

Have you had a look at suggestions for choosing a binocular?

Read some good reviews on net about them. Budget about £200.

[glowjet]

Strathspey Binoculars do come well recommended and produce good quality products, they have in their range of large bins a pair of 20X90, with an exit pupil of 4.5, they are within your budget figure and may strike a happy medium between the 15X70 and the 25X100

John.

[palebluedot]

I was told on a course that the rough rule of thumb when choosing for astro use, is the aperture/6 rule. So for 50mm we want mag~8 or somewhere in the 7-12 range. Just something to bear in mind.

[Hobbes]

Are you planning on getting a tripod as well as Bins out of the £200?

[glowjet]

Not heard of that one, but the mean average for Urban skies is an exit pupil of about 5 hence the popular 10X50 or 7X50/40. In Astronomy use if you are able to have access to extremely dark skies, the iris can open up even more, so the larger exit pupil in this case is better, under the circumstances taking into account what the professionals advise, then 20X90 would have a small advantage over the 20X80 or 25X100 models. The 15X70 is very popular and the exit pupil there is 4.6 and most seem to be happy with them, but as said it is something to bear in mind, that is why some without this knowledge have bought high mag bins with very small exit pupils, only to find they are looking down a tunnel

[steve_bham]

Are you planning on getting a tripod as well as Bins out of the £200?

No all ready got a good tripod for my Nikon d80

[Hobbes]

No all ready got a good tripod for my Nikon d80

Well as you can see from my Signature I have the revelation 20x80's - great bins for the money and I have seen loads with them. I still take them out on my observing sessions and love them.

If I had £200 to spend just on Bins would I buy these? Probably not. the problem is that most the one I would go for instead are a bit more.

The Strathspey 20x90's come in as shade over as do the Helios Quantum 4 20x80 and 20x90's although the 10x60's are well within your price range.

Another thing to consider is the narrower FOV that you get with these big bins and I think it is worth considering something like a Rigel QuikFinder Compact Reflex Sight on them.

Also worth thinking about is the height of your tripod. Remember that the things that you will be looking at are high up. My tripod goes up to 2 meters and I need all of that (I am 6'4"). Most people find 1.8M sufficient and adding a pistol grip can add additional height. I think my ideal set up would look something like this:

Stick those extra bits onto the price of the revelations and you are probably crowding your £200 limit.

I'm not sure if this helps or not.

[markv333]

Depends what you want out of astronomy, over the last 15 years ive had a number of scopes, the last one was a celestron 6se sct but when i viewed the sky thru big bino's (revelation 20x80)....WOW! £85 and the sct was £750....... i have now sold the 6" sct as FOV with big bino's was amazing!! no set up and FOV far out weighs magnification....... now looking at getting quantum 4 25x100's