Had a cracking night with a pair of Lidl bins.

[tich]

Most weekends I usually go off to a dark site to do some observing & imaging weather permitting but I had arranged to go & see Tom (Earth Titan) to pick up a filter for my DSLR plus it was great to catch up too. It wasn't looking to good to start with as there was plenty of cloud around but upon arrival the clouds soon cleared so off we both went to the obsy. He opened up the roof & we both sat in there drinking a cuppa watching the sky get darker, I got shown how the filter fitted to the DSLR & I've now fitted it to mine so it's ready to go the next time I try a spot of imaging so thanks for that.

While we were sat there I said I wished I'd brought my scope to have a look around the sky to which he said well I got these, meaning the Lidl 10x50 bins. My previous experience when using binoculars hasn't been the best I tended to find what you are looking at hard to see due to movement but however I thought what the hell. Now as I'm a bit of a constellation dunce I only know a few major ones, so when he was pointing up to one describing the shape I just couldn't see it so I must have a pretty poor imagination.

Anyhow I managed to see the double cluster without to much fuss & they framed it perfectly something that my 200P struggles to do, we then looked at Alberio, the coat hanger (which I still don't think it looks like one) M13 which looked a lot better than I thought it would have, the Pleiades which is always a nice object to look at & M31 which I just couldn't keep my eyes off because as soon as the bins were in my grubby little hands again I'd be straight on it again. The Milky Way was looking really good too with the dust lanes beginning to show. I'm guessing there were plenty more objects that I've missed that we both viewed but all in all a pretty good session. The clouds came over by around midnight so we packed in for the night.

I have to say I was pretty impressed with those Lidl bins might get myself a pair sometime as they seemed to work well, the only other bins tat I've had any success with is a pair of Canon ones with the image stabiliser, very good pieces of kit but they do come at a price.

I'd like to say thanks to Tom for a good night, hope we can do it again sometime.

[Schorhr]

Great that you had a nice observation night with the Lidl binoculars!

Those are the Auriol, or do they still sell the better 10x50 Bresser there?

I usually get scolded when recomending the Lidl binoculars, but if you manage to get a decent pair, they are great for the price IMHO.

I also take them along when I can't locate objects with the heritage 130p and the red dot finder (light polution etc) to assist me, or just to browse through the sky...

[tich]

To be honest I've no idea what brand they were but they did seem to perform ok, much better than the ones I have at home.

[Watchman]

Lidl? As in the supermarket Lidl? Or am I being a complete thicko here?

[Schorhr]

Yeah, at least here in Germany they also sold One of the only usable telescope kits (Skylux, 70/700 on eq/Astro3 mount). Sadly they seem to only sell a small goto telescope now, and instead of Bresser 10x50 they now sell a Auriol 10x50, but at 20€ it's still a good deal.

[AlexB67]

Nice report Tich, I was vey tempted by those lidl bins, seen them a few times but wasn't sure and thought would be better research them, but never did so far, there is a lidl quite close to me and spotted them a few times. At my parent's house I know my old man said on the phone the other day we have a very decent bins they never use anyway, so I can take that with me next time, that should help. As Schorhr says, sometimes LP makes the RD finder hard to use, an no doubt the bins will be nice to look trough in their own right as well

[tich]

I have to admit I was quite surprised what I managed to see with them & 10X50 mag is ideal as anything higher for me anyway makes the experience quite poor. I'm on the hunt for some 10x50's for myself so while I'm imaging I can have a peer up into the skies & it's got to be easier than setting up two scopes.

[Watchman]

I managed to scrounge a pair of Miranda 10X50s from my old dad since he cant really use them anymore, I imagine they are actually not good quality but they are better than nothing and I do use them alot for scanning around for likely targets. I will invest in a better pair of bins eventually.

[WaveSoarer]

I have my binoculars to hand whenever I set up my telescope. They really help finding the region I'm after before I start viewing through the finder scope. They're also great for observing bigger clusters and the Beehive looks great in bins.

[tich]

I've recently brought myself a pair of old Zenith 10x50 bins dirt cheap although I've had to strip them apart to give them a clean. They seem to perform well during the daylight so I'm hoping to give them a go on the next clear night we get. I have to say I'm still surprised what I managed to see with a pair of 10x50's so I'm looking forward to having another peer around the skies.