Binocular Question

[Sunshine]

Hello, i am curious about how large bino's are typically used, i have never had the pleasure of looking through a large pair, it must be beautiful.  Upon doing some searching, i see that Orion makes 100mm ED bino's, that is BIG! and ED at that. When using such Bino's, it is obvious the eyepieces will cost a lot since one needs two of each but, can magnification follow the same rule per inch of aperture as a telescope? is it feasible to use lets say 100x power in binoculars? (on a mount  of course). Having never used a large quality pair, i can imagine what sweeping the milky way would be like with such large ED binoculars. Maybe if i had a peek, i may never touch my telescope again. Those Orion ED binoculars are pricey but, they surely must be another experience all together. Sweeping star rich regions in stereo vision must be just jaw dropping.

 

[Ciaran Meier]

I've had set of Stellar II 15x70 for about a year now and they are getting plenty of use.  I'm using them a lot more than my 8 inch newt which I've had for years.  I use the bins on a monopod and they are just splendid for general sweeping.  Really good on DSO too, I've been able to track down the fainter NGC's in Auriga with these.  Also gave me my first look at the Dumbbell M27 as I've no visibility of guide stars to star hop with the scope from my back yard in Belfast.  Great for doubles too.  Brocchis Cluster in Vulpecula, the "Coat hanger", was another first with the bins.  Would definitely recommend you go for it 😀. 

[mark81]

Ive liked the look of those for a while.  I had an opportunity to look through some 100mm APMs a few months back and the viewing experience was fantastic - very immersive.  They were mounted on a very heavy duty photo tripod -  I think it was the Fotomate 680....many of these bigger bins are over 7kg... So that's one thing to think about.  

Your right about the money side of things in terms of double EPs but I wouldn't want to push the mags too high as essentially binoculars are more of a widefield instrument - so you would only need two or three sets....I guess you could push the mag up but the image will begin to deteriorate.  My friend generally goes up to about x40 with his 100mm - which is not to be sniffed at! Amazing views of the bigger DSOs and of course the rich star fields across the Milky Way would be amazing...

 Mark

[Peter Drew]

I have some very large binocular instruments.  To be fair, they would be better described as binocular telescopes although the results are the same. The largest, self built, are 30x150, 50x200 and 50x300, the last two having reflecting optics. The 150 and 200 are just about portable, the 300 definitely not!  As with most things there are compromises, the larger they are the higher the lowest magnification you can use which in turn affects the maximum field of view available, my 300's max out at just over 1.5 degrees.  The views on a good night are awesome as you might expect.    😀