Are my bins any good?

[DonRemus]

I have been looking at some binocular threads. Mine are Miranda 10x50 and I have had them a long time (25+ years) but only just started stargazing with them.

I have focused each side independently after watching a Youtube video and noticed an improvement.

How can I tell if they are any good or what should I be able to see?

I have done a few sessions cloud permitting and have seen M42 as a smudge with 2 or 3 pinpricks of light inside, M31 is a barely visible patch of lighter sky. Jupiter appears as a bright tiny disc and I can make out 2 or 3 moons. Plaiedes fills the FOV with about 7 bright stars and lots of fainter ones. M36, M37 and M38 clusters are just lighter smudges of sky. I haven't been able to see any other nebulae searched for.

I lean on fences,walls or a rotary washing line where possible. I have a decent camera tripod but the bins do not have a screw thread for an adaptor to attach them to it.

I live in a town so lots of street lighting.

Do my sightings look about right or should I see more?

[Capricorn]

If you can see anything, it is not blurred, there is not a double image and they are comfortable then they are good.

[rowan46]

tetenterre regularly posts in the binoculars discussion forum what he doesn't know about binoculars probably isn't worth knowing heres alink to his website

http://binocularsky.com/binoc_eval.php

[BinocularSky]

Miranda 10x50 and I have had them a long time (25+ years) but only just started stargazing with them. How can I tell if they are any good or what should I be able to see?<snip>I have a decent camera tripod but the bins do not have a screw thread for an adaptor to attach them to it. I live in a town so lots of street lighting. Do my sightings look about right or should I see more?

Sounds about right for a light-polluted environment -- dark skies will make a heck of a difference. If you have the ones with the gold coatings, you'll find that they give a blue tinge to things. They were better engineered than the modern United Optics budget binoculars, and you'd probably need to spend at least £100 to get a 10x50 that is distinctly better. If you do want to mount it, you will need a hinge clamp; the only one I know of that is currently available in the UK is the Opticron one at the bottom of this page. However, if you learn to hold it effectively, you can get most of the same benefits as a mount, without the dis-benefit of decreased portability. Some suggestions here.

tetenterre regularly posts in the binoculars discussion forum what he doesn't know about binoculars probably isn't worth knowing heres alink to his website http://binocularsky.com/binoc_eval.php

Very kind (thank you!), but not quite true! I'm just a keen amateur; the real experts are people like Peter Drew, Cory Suddarth, Bill Cook, Peter Abrahams and Holger Merlitz, all of whom know a heck of a lot more, and have more experience, than I do.