Whats the best pair of binoculars for astronomy?

[25585]

38 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

I read an article many years ago regarding the richest star fields vs aperture, and it turned out that 9X60 offers the most stars for the aperture and magnification. My first binoculars, which i bought second hand, were 12X60's. The bridge was broken so I had to hold the right hand eyepiece in focus using plastercine. Despite this, they really were great and I observed almost all the Messier objects with them. I also had my first taste of observing and tracking comets with those bins. Mounted on a tall wooden home made tripod with altaz fork, they kept me happily occupied for several years and were a better choice than many of the Dixon's telescopes that were on offer back in the early 80's. Attached is the only photo I have of my bino set-up from around 38 years ago.

Celestron make a 9x63 I believe. I have an 8x56 pair of Celestron Nature DX which give bright images. They make a porro prism pair in that size too. 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have had both some cheap BA-1 type 15x70s (Celestron (briefly), Omegon, and TS branded). The first pair was faulty, the second lasted a while but were easily knocked out of collimation, and in the end the bridge broke, the last one i got cheap because they were out of collimation but I easily fixed that. The boys regularly use them. Verdict: a well collimated pair is quite a bargain, if you accept they are only about 15x64 due to internal baffles. I had a lot of fun, with them, and they showed me that this kind of instrument sees a lot of use even if you have a very nice wide-field frac (APM 80mm F/6 triplet). I replaced my Omegon 15x70s with a second-hand pair of Helios Apollo 15x70s (BA-8 type). These are true 15x70s, and of MUCH better build and optical quality. Well worth the extra money in my books. I had these for years, but have recently replaced these by Helios LightQuest 16x80 binoculars. These are even better, but more expensive. The extra 30%  of light, at roughly the same magnification and weight allow me to use them hand held for short sessions, but they really shine on either a P-mount or a monopod