What instrumet for wide angle?

[tico]

hello, I always liked wide views of the sky, especially the Milky Way in summer, they seem very aesthetic to me, without high magnifications of any object in particular. What would you choose for this type of observations? - some wide field binoculars... or - a small refractor with a wide angle eyepiece? Thank you.

Tico

[CraigT82]

Good budget option for very wide field viewing is to buy a used Nikon TC-E2 Teleconverter, you can just hold it up to your eye. I have one which is 54mm aperture and 2x magnification. Takes a bit of practice to observe through it but once you get the hang they’re wonderful under dark skies.

 

[Waddensky]

I have both, 10x50 6.5 degree binoculars and an ST80 refractor with an ES 24mm 68 degree eyepiece offering just over 4 degrees of true field of view.

The refractor of course goes much deeper, showing fainter stars which is especially apparent in regions with many stars, like the denser parts of the Milky Way (which also helps to distinguish dark nebulae). Mounted on an AZ-4 mount it offers very stable views unlike the handheld binos. An additional benefit is that you can attach a filter to the eyepiece, to hunt for diffuse bright nebulae like the Veil, North America and southern gems like the Omega and the Lagoon.

On the other hand, there's something about the two-eyed viewing in the binoculars. It gives a sense of depth, a more immersive experience than the ST80 offers. I also get the impression that star colours are more vivid in the binoculars (30/31 Cygni, Albireo). Might have something to do with the coatings, not really sure (the exit pupil is comparable). Although both setups are reasonably grab-n-go, the binos are much easier to carry and use.

So to answer your question, ehm, both...? They both get a lot of use in my case.

[RobertI]

13 minutes ago, Waddensky said:

I have both, 10x50 6.5 degree binoculars and an ST80 refractor with an ES 24mm 68 degree eyepiece offering just over 4 degrees of true field of view.

The refractor of course goes much deeper, showing fainter stars which is especially apparent in regions with many stars, like the denser parts of the Milky Way (which also helps to distinguish dark nebulae). Mounted on an AZ-4 mount it offers very stable views unlike the handheld binos. An additional benefit is that you can attach a filter to the eyepiece, to hunt for diffuse bright nebulae like the Veil, North America and southern gems like the Omega and the Lagoon.

On the other hand, there's something about the two-eyed viewing in the binoculars. It gives a sense of depth, a more immersive experience than the ST80 offers. I also get the impression that star colours are more vivid in the binoculars (30/31 Cygni, Albireo). Might have something to do with the coatings, not really sure (the exit pupil is comparable). Although both setups are reasonably grab-n-go, the binos are much easier to carry and use.

So to answer your question, ehm, both...? They both get a lot of use in my case.

My experience exactly, not much to add to this. 👍

[John]

Another advocate of both types of instrument here.

Binoculars sometimes do things that scopes can't and are very quick and hassle free to deploy of course.

For higher magnification wide views (15x plus) I find a short refractor on a simple alt-azimuth mount more effective.

 

 

[Emperor!Takahashi!]

Sometimes, when a binocular and telescope love each other very much...