Do binoculars help....

[nederman63]

When you start off on this hobby, by that I mean locating objects for the first time/helping you to point your scope in the right direction. I realise that a finderscope is for this reason, but was wondering if a pair of bins help when looking for dimmer stars which may be hard to spot by the naked eye, or am I being daft.

[Jim Steele]

They have helped me lots, much wider field of view making star hopping much easier. Can be taken pretty much anywhere too

[sologuitarist61]

I must admit that I often go out with my bino's to save the bother of setting the scope up. It is quick and easy so that you can take advantage of brief viewing between the clouds, or if your time is limited. You don't need powerful binoculars either and I find my pair of 10x42's make a huge difference to the naked eye view.

[steveb1977]

I think they are invaluable for the reasons you have said. Give you a good view of where you want to go before star hopping to it. Then using the finderscope to move the telescope accross the path you have already seen.

[swamp thing]

I think they are invaluable for the reasons you have said. Give you a good view of where you want to go before star hopping to it. Then using the finderscope to move the telescope accross the path you have already seen.

^^^This^^^

[nederman63]

So 10. X 42 or. 10. 50 are used for astronomy viewing! I have been thinking about this, anything that helps out when your starting off must be a bonus. I am struggling to get this sky map sorted, and been thinking of getting some bins to help me locate objects a bit easier.

[swamp thing]

I use 10x50 bins and an 8x50 RACI (right ange correct image) finder,this makes translating what I've seen through the bins to the finder dead easy.

[steveb1977]

I use 10x50 which match the finderscopes I have. They will be a great help by just seeing whats on the map directly in the sky, also while looking in that direction to get bearings on where you are in the sky.

Don't have to be expensive either. The binoculars I use along side my 16" Dob cost about £15 from Lidl, they do the job required fine.

[Dreamweaver]

Hello Nederman,

10X50 seem to be the standard size binocular. I have found binoculars to be so useful and if you have them braced against something (tree or pole) or even better on a home made stand, then this opens up quite another experience of star gazing all together.

I started with a right angled finder in in my first telescope but not knowing what I know now I found it confusing when the image in the finder was correct with respect to up and down but the other way round when it came to the left and right view. All the star patterns memorised from binoculars became completely unfathomable to me in my little head because the extra processing power needed for me to mentally swap stars from left to right became too much and I was always getting lost and frustrated. I then rushed out and bought a correct image right angled finder. A 9x50, RACI does make life so much easier.