Bins

[murgen]

To go with my weather-affected dive into the fascinating world of astronomy, I quite fancy a pair of binoculars so I can watch it raining (joke).

Hand hold-able 10x50's I suppose.

I have owned binoculars in the past and have always been frustrated by the coloured light flaring whilst observing, say, venus as you approach and pass the point of focus.

It may well be that it was purely the (lack of) quality of the binoculars that was causing this, but i wouldn't want to buy an expensive pair to get round this effect to find they did it too.

I notice FLO have some half-price 10x50's on clearance at the moment. Can anyone recommend them or pass on some good binocular advice?

Thanks

M

[sologuitarist61]

I must admit that I am after a pair as well.

I saw the FLO clearance thread about the Barr and Stroud pairs but find it hard to see how they are worth the money (£70) when only a few weeks ago they were selling for £69, but then went up to £94 just before the clearance offer - so passed on those on principal.

The Helios Mistral 8x42 look good and focus down to 1.5 meters if you want them to double as every day and nature bins.

Also the Opticron Aspheric WA ZWCF GA 8x40 look good for £69 from FLO.

Not 10x50's but will at least give you a more wide angle view of the heavens than 10x50's.

[Ad Astra]

Poor optical coatings (or bins that are not fully multi-coated) can suffer lens flare badly, making viewing a bright object like Venus or Jupiter disappointing.

Look for "Fully Multi-coated" and buy from a dealer you trust. If you try them out, look for a pin-point reflection to test them on. (Sunlight on a bit of chrome from a car in a parking lot works very well.) This will show lens flare and chromatic abberation (red/blue flares) if the bins are prone to them.

Do keep in mind that these abberations are very hard to fully surpress - and looking at a bright point against a black background (like Venus or Jupiter) brings out the worst of it. Still, in good quality astronomy bins, this should be well surpressed and not a real distractor from the good view.

Brands are different here in the USA from the UK - I recommend you check with a local shop where you can try before you buy, or call up the folks at FLO who sponsor SGL and see what they can do for you.

Dan

[sologuitarist61]

Excellent advice Dan, thank you

[Rakanishu]

I was exactly the same a few months ago and I bought the olympus 10x50 dps I, for £50

Still enjoying them so much at least until i get a telescope ofc.

[murgen]

Thanks for that Dan.

So, it's more likely to be lack of proper coating than badly aligned or mis-shaped optics?

Would you not be relatively safe with a good "name" and a minimum "sort of" price?

M