Binoculars v telescopes

[DayeyB]

Hi all !

I'm a newbie on here (and to astronomy) and have a question that i hope you guys can help with. I have a telescope (70mm celestron refractor) already but my viewing time is very limited and i end up mostly using my 15x70 visionary bins most of the time which are great but I have been looking at the £250 25x100 Revelation + tripod deal  that Telescope House are offering at the moment so my question is how will these bins compare to my current scope or a later upgrade (around this price point) ?

Cheers, Dave

[Pete Presland]

wow! £250 for binoculars, you could get an 200 mm dobsonian telescope for not much more than that!

i dont think it is fair to compare the binoculars to a telescope, but the question really is, are you going to use your current scope or one you are going to upgrade to. if the answer is no, then a pair binoculars that you use are going to be better than any scope you own that you do not use.

one more thing i would add is that you would get at 10x more magnification from a 200 mm dobsonian telescope than the fixed 25x binoculars. choices? choices? choices?

[ronin]

25x will show Jupiter as a small disk but no detail, the moons will be bright dots around it.

Saturn will be a disk, nothing else, same for Mars a small red disk.

I find binoculars are best for "looking around" and getting to know where things are.

Clusters are good in binoculars as they are generally faint and binoculars have a nice field of view to locate them.

For detail you need 60x for Jupiter and 100x for Saturn.

Things like M42 do well with much the same magnification.

For DSO's most of the time you simply aperture and so bigger is better.

It all depends on what you want, binoculars provide 2 different aspects, and realistically how much you will use them. I would generally say get a scope, I will also day that I will use binoculars more often. They are 8x42's that I keep in the car. So a dark area, no rush and I will stop and look at what is there. Point is they are easy to always have available, not sure that 25x100's are as easy.

Not easy as I can get 70x on a small 70mm refractor and see Jupiters bands, which 25x100 binoculars will not give.

[Paulhenry85]

I have both, a telescope and pair on binoculars.

Telescopes are better at light gathering changing magnification and are more steady, binoculars are good for there field of view portibilty and ease of use. Binoculars of that size and weight are pretty much a telescope.

Personally if I was you I wouldn't buy another pair of binoculars especially ones that cost that much, they won't improve the views that you can already get from you existing binos.

I think you are better off saving your money and buying a tripod for your binoculars

[Jason71]

Some good information here on what to expect from binoculars. Iv just ordered some Helios Apollo High Resolution 15x70 . Iv seen some good reviews on these. Also iv ordered a skywatcher 200p dobsonian . Both coming tomorrow so I have best of both worlds :-)

[DayeyB]

Wow ! replies much faster than I expected so thanks for that, I should also say I also have a 8" dob which I picked up second hand on Gumtree, it's pretty old but does give fantastic views when I have the time to get it out of the garage but as I say time is very limited for me (20-30mins is about all I usually have time for) so actually perhaps my question is more like how much better the 25x100s will be over the 15x70s and what sort of detail do you get with the bigger bins ? 

Cheers all,

Dave.

[LukeSkywatcher]

i dont think it is fair to compare the binoculars to a telescope

You simply cant compare both. 

I think a set of 25x100 bins and tripod for £250 is a good deal. It all depends on the tripod though because it it is flimsey...........it wont be enough to support the bins.

Binocular astronomy and telescope astronomy are very different. It boils down to what you want/need. Bins will NEVER be as good as a scope simply because of the fixed magnification.

[baggywrinkle]

For ease and quickness of set up both bins are the two scopes you have are both good, but for detailed views of planets then the Dob you have will be better.

But the price on the 25x100 is very very tempting! It will give you good wide field views.

[LukeSkywatcher]

For ease and quickness of set up both bins are the two scopes you have are both good, but for detailed views of planets then the Dob you have will be better.

But the price on the 25x100 is very very tempting! It will give you good wide field views.

Tempting, depending on the quality of the tripod. Good bins with a rubbish tripod are of no use.

Ive just checked out all the 25x100 bins on Telescope house and i dont think the tripod they are offering will cut the mustard with bins of that size.

Just my honest opinion.

[DayeyB]

Thanks one and all, I've taken the plunge and ordered the 25x100 bins, (tripod looks pretty sturdy and has an 8kg limit ?) and decided to sell my celestron refractor (to part fund the bins) and keep the dob for the rare occasions I have time to use it as it seems a shame to get rid of such a great bit of kit that I only paid £100 for, looking forward to trying out the 25x100s and will report back and maybe give a review ! Thanks again,

Dave.