Binoculars for a beginner

[kaybee]

Hi guys.

As a step to getting into astronomy I’m considering investing in a pair of binoculars to start learning to find my way around the sky with, see how I enjoy it really rather than diving straight in with a full ‘scope setup.

I’ve read several good reviews of the Celestron 15x70’s, and they seem to crop up on e-bay fairly regularly for around the £40-55 mark, which I’m more than happy to spend as a “finding out” investment.

Has anyone any experience with these? Do you rate them? And are there any competitors you would also recommend looking into?

[Dan85]

i recently got some 10x50's for about £40, i would recommend getting some bins before a scope (i took advice from the "newbie section"), still debating my first scope but you can get some fantastic views from the bins, and the general concensus seems to be to start with that way before getting a scope from what i have read, although i hope to be upgrading to a scope soon

Dan

[kaybee]

What 10x50's did you go with, Dan, and how are you finding them... what've you spotted with them so far?

[MarkTwo]

From my own reading around I found that the wisdom of the ancients largely suggests going for a bit less magnification than you are suggesting, e.g. 7 x 50. I chose some Pentax 8 x 40's earlier this year and have found them excellent. The smaller objectives were to keep them manageable for the kids. In my 'umble opinion a wide field of view is more useful for learning the sky than high magnification. In any case you will see more stars than you know what to do with. Handholding will be easier with lower magnification too.

Cheers,

Mark

[Mr Q]

I bet the reason there are so many bins above 10x on e-bay is that they are hard to hold steady for a decent view of any object without an added expense of a tripod. 10x50s are the highest accepted power for steady observing with their 5mm exit pupil and 10x70s coming in second with a 7mm exit pupil. The exit pupil is the size of the cone of light exiting the bins. If it exceeds your eyes' ability the dilate (7mm for young eyes to 5mm for older eyes), you will be wasting light gathering power of the more expensive bins.

For a starter instrument, bins are great but for astronomy use, some important features are needed for good results. When looking for a bin, make sure they have "fully, multi-coated" optics to reduce wasted light scattering from the optics. Make sure they have "BAK 4" prisims, have a focused view at least 2/3 the way to the edges of their field of view, have at least fairly tight mechanical central focusing knob and EP movement and that they don't produce double images when looking through them.

Of course you can't do these things when ordering them by mail but if you deal with an astronomical oriented firm, chances are their bins will pass the above conditions.

[Carbon Brush]

On selection of binos, my own take is....

You can go up to x10 handheld, then you are looking at resting elbows on something, or a tripod, to get a steady image.

x7 or x8 is more relaxing, but not so good on small objects.

You can go to 50mm lenses, hand held, then they get heavy and you are looking at a tripod etc again.

With smaller lenses, 40mm is really a minimum for astro use.

Anything less is daylight only.

I have looked through numerous dodgy makes and known names. Some with poor fov. Some have so little eye relief your eyeball touches the lens Some with 'foggy' optics. Some badly collimated from new.

My best binos are Opticron imagic http://www.firstligh...orro-prism.html

These are good at night and light enough to carry about for daytime use on the move.

Fantastic image clarity, fov, eye relief.

A second is http://www.firstligh...porroprism.html

Poor at night because of the small objective.

However, stunning daytime views.

Small and lightweight.

The favourite for 'she who must obeyed'.

As for buying from 'the bay'. I would not go there.

With a 'proper' retailer you can try the kit, or on mail order send it back if you don't like it.

FLO I believe offer 30 day return on their binos.

something i didn't think about till recently. With binos you have the objective, prisms and eyepeice lenses, then double it for both eyes. a lott of 'good' glass to find, and finish, and coat. A lot of alignment work. no wonder decent binos are expensive and cheap binos give poor results.

Good luck with your seraching. Take your time, canvass opinions. Try before you buy if you can. Or at least have an option on return.

[TheNorthernMonkey]

Even with 50x10 binos, I still prefer to use them with a tripod. Even a rubbishy eBay special will be steadier than you can hand hold, but the stronger the better for tripods.

I use a manfrotto tripod I bought for use with my camera along with a £10 bino tripod mount from amazon

[glowjet]

I think you will find that the consensus of opinion will be towards 10x50 or 7X50 for hand held, we do have a dedicated Bins section but Strathspey Binoculars come highly recommended and their web site gives much information on their construction and use

John.

[cantab]

I have the Celestron 15x70s and a pair of inexpensive 10x50s. The difference in view the greater magnification and aperture produces is noticable (and I think the Celestrons are sharper too), but the reduction in field of view and the extra weight and image shake are also noticable. I can hand-hold the 15x70s for brief sky scanning but for serious faint fuzzy hunting the tripod is essential, and a tripod - or monopod or other support - capable of handling them well (mine struggles) will probably cost at least as much as the binoculars themselves.

[Spec-Chum]

If you're looking for cheap and cheerful I can recommend the Celestron UpClose 10x50 bins, they're under £20.

Granted, they're not the greatest for visual quality and they're quite soft around the edges, but they're very sharp in the middle and for the money I think they're a bargain...

[mart rich]

I have 10 x 50 Helios Naturesport, which I like very much. Might be a bit more than you are hoping to spend (£100) but then they should last a lifetime and be useful for more than just stargazing.

Personally I find them a little heavy and wobbly but I get around this by either observing lying on my back with the bins resting on my face, or with elbows resting on a garden seat. I am thinking about a tripod but I don't use them enough to justify it really.

I wouldn't recommend anything bigger/heavier. I use mine as a telescope replacement when I don't have time or willpower to get the scope out. But they don't do much for planets except Jupiter (can see some moons on a good day).

HTH

Martin

[kaybee]

Thanks to all for the replies, only joined up a couple of days ago and I've been really impressed with how helpful everyone is.

Based upon what you've all said I think I'll look further into the 10x50's, and perhaps stretch my budget a little (I guess I'm going to get used to saying that! ). I do quite a lot of photographyso I have a decent tripod that should be more than up to the job for binoculars should I want to bolt them on, but I was primarily aiming for hand held.

I'll let you know how I get on!

[LukeSkywatcher]

10x50 bins are perfectly ok for astronomy. They can be easily hand-held. Its only when you go larger that they need a solid mount.

If you can afford them and a mount, the Celestron 15x70 would be amazing.

[PorkyB]

I have a lovely pair of 10x50 bins from Teleskop Service in Germany. They weren't cheap at £105 but the image quality is excellent. I have a 90mm Mak telescope as well, but I never go out without the bins. i find that the scope complements the bins but does not replace them, in fact the bins help me find what i want to point the scope at.

I have had a go with a friends 20x80 bins. They were excellent and i would like some, but if I could only have one pair then it would be the 10x50s.

I have found that my viewing is greatly enhanced by using a cheap monopod just to help keep the bins steady. This was £10 from Amazon with another £10 for a sturdy L-bracket. i do use a lightweight tripod with bins as well (£40 from Argos and using the same L-bracket) but for grab-and-go the monopod works best.

[ronin]

To learn your way around the sky you need a decent understandable book, a red light and then a set of binoculars.

When you look up your eyes have a very large field of view.

Even binoculars do not get close to the field of view, so through them you see a portion (small) of the sky.

Really would suggest a set of the standard everyday birding binoculars, 8x42's.

You will get a bigger selection, and they have ended up that size owing to them meeting all the assorted requirments of people.

[carlc]

I'd have a look at Binocular Sky http://binocularsky.com/binoc_choosing.php - it's a great website and Steve gives recommendations at several price points and there's lots of other good stuff on there.

[Spacerock]

Hi

I'm new to this to and purchased the Stargazers Starter Pack from Telescope House - http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Stargazers_10x50_Binoculars_Starter_Pack.html - comes with a good book, red LED torch and Planisphere. Excellent service too. The Strathspeys come highly recommended too, especially for the money - http://www.strathspey.co.uk/.

Cheers

John

[kaybee]

Many thanks to all for the advice. In the end I stretched a bit and went for a pair of strathspey marine 10x50's.

We took them camping last weekend to a fairly dark spot in dorset. We only got one clear night out of three, but I have to say I can well see why the main piece of advice given is "don't jump straight in with a 'scope". Seeing the band of the Milky Way is stunning in itself, but the sheer amount of stars visible through the bins is amazing... and baffling at the same time! Picking out constellations is straight forward enough, but I can see what a finely practiced skill identifying and then hopping between individual objects is looking through the bins!

I'm pretty hooked!

[glowjet]

It is nice to read that you eventually went for some good quality bins and have already given them first light. Apart from Stellarium to help you navigate about the night sky, there is also a dedicated free star map program for bins, called TUBA, which you will find details of at the beginning of the forums Bins Section. You can configure these star maps to show what you want in any particular area of the sky, and print them off to take outside, or simply purchasing a copy of Sky and Telescopes Pocket Sky Atlas would be a very useful addition, even if you consider up grading at some time in the future to a telescope

John.

[kaybee]

Thanks John... I'll take a look at TUBA now. I downloaded stellarium a few days back and also have a copy of turn left at orion. Would a copy of the sky and telescope atlas make a useful addition to this, or does turn left at orion cover the same/in more depth?

[Richardisgreat]

I own a pair of Revelation 15x70 Binos, im told they are similar to the celestron, i am very happy with them however they are a little too heavy for astro use therefore i bought a cheapo vixen tripod for them. The binos cost me about £40 of ebay and the tripod was about £30 new. The problem of holding them steady enough for astro use was solved due to the tripod. The best things i have seen through the binos are M45 The Pleiades they look like beautifull diamods scattered across the FOV. I saw Jupiter through them aswell no surface detail on Jupiter just a disk shape but i saw 3 of the moons as tiny star like specks. That was a wow moment when i realised i was seeing the moons of another planet. Once i also spotted M31 Andromeda Galaxy as a very faint gey whisp again no detail at all but to think i was seeing an object 2,500,000 light years away really blew me away. I highly recommend the Revelation 15x70 Binoculars with a tripod ( the more stable the better. I dont regret it one bit.

[Richardisgreat]

Going slightly off topic i highly recommend you take the Binoculars to the coast next time you go there and look out to sea, its quite amazing how much detail you can get from looking at boats/ships on the horizon.

[SteveNickolls]

I don't think its been mentioned but 'Binocular Astronomy' by Stephen Tonkin is a great read with a chapter on choosing binoculars and includes two chapters devoted to deepsky objects observable with 50mm and 100mm objective binoculars. As a result of reading the book I saved a lot of money on kit and love using modest 10x50's on a tripod-binocular views can be stunning.

Good hunting,

Steve

[glowjet]

The Pocket Sky Atlas is something just less than a tenner from Amazon dealers, including postage, nice size that just fits in your pocket and will contain all the information you want, whether you are using a scope or bins, this a very popular publication which is used by a good many of the forum members. If you get well into the subject you may eventually want to refer to a more detailed star map like Sky Atlas 2000 which is, of course, much larger and shows more detail of the night sky, but the pocket Atlas will serve you well for the present. This may sound a little late in being mentioned, but you should be using a red torch to read your maps, to preserve your night vision, any glimpse of a white light at a dark site will ruin your dark adapted eyes for up to 30 minutes or longer. You probably new this already and I am trying to teach Mothers to suck eggs lol, enjoy your Astronomy

John.

[lestergibson]

I have the Celesteron 15x70's and an Olivon TR150 tripod which work really well for me. You definitely need a decent tripod for the big bins so if you go big, don't scrimp on the tripod. A shakey one is a right PITA.