Suggested binoculars for beginner getting into stargazing

[KV7]

Hi everyone, very very new to the hobby currently on holiday in Spain and downloaded the NightSky app. Been fixated on it all week! Set alarm for 5am last night to get a look at Jupiter! Now I want to buy either binoculars or a telescope but struggling to find out what would he best for me, I am leaning towards binoculars to start, with a budget around £200-£300. Any help would be muchly appreciated 

[wulfrun]

Welcome to SGL, first of all! May I suggest Steve Tonkin's excellent site is a good place to start, lots of good advice and review pages:

http://binocularsky.com/

Note that you'll need some expensive, large & heavy binoculars to see Jupiter as much more than a speck. However, even "normal" ones will show you the moons, especially if you can mount them on a tripod or monopod.

Edited September 15 by wulfrun
typo

[Bignerdguy]

Frankly if you want to start with Binoculars, don't go for big heavy expensive ones for your first pair., you don't need them.  A decent pair of 50mm binoculars is great for beginners to start with.  Be sure whatever you buy does have good multicoating's on them as this will help with light amplification.  No you wont be able to see the planets very close with such a pair however things like nebulas (brighter ones like Orion) and clusters will appear quite easily i them.  Once you are happy with what you have seen you might try upgrading to a refactor or Newtonian reflector as a first scope.  Learning how to view the sky with Binoculars is your first challenge.  i might suggest a way ais this:  Hold your arms so your elbows are pointed in and down and against your chest.  this will help you stabilize the image somewhat.  Later if you want more stability you can get a tripod adapter to allow you to secure the binoculars to the tripod and make it easier to see with.  Any bino you get needs to have the center hinge have a removable cap on the end to allow you to screw such an adapter to it.  The bigger more expensive ones come with such an adapter built into an arm down the center.  Essentially stick to something not too expensive so you can get a feel for if you really want to get into this hobby or not.  That way you aren't wasting your money if later it turns out you really aren't interested in it.  Plus the Binos can come in handy for other uses besides star watching.