Please help!!

[MissClio]

Complete novice, will I be ok to purchase Bushnell PowerView 8x42 binoculars to get me started??

Many thanks Miss Clio

[MissClio]

Have just purchased them from ebay - hope they will be ok!

[brantuk]

Hi Clio - download "Stellarium" - it's free and will show the sky at your location so you have an idea of what you are looking at with the binocs

[JamesM]

I have to admit that I have never bought anything optical from Ebay as I prefer to look through the item first before buying. Bushnell is a recognised brand unlike some of the things you see on that site although for astronomy, I would have advised you to have chosen binos that had slightly larger objective glass, so instead of the '42' would have advised '50' as being better. The reason is because you are looking at objects which can be pretty faint and so a nice large bit of glass at the front of your binos would just help you see those little faint objects that are in the background.

I hope they arrive safely and if any problems with focusing etc do send them back.

Clear skies

James

[jonathan]

I have the Bushnell Legend 8x42 and love them to bits. Very well made, very clear views through them, despite what people say it's still a massive step up from the Mk I eyeball so there should be plenty for you to see through them, including the moons around Jupiter and the Andromeda Galaxy if you have dark enough skies. I have tried larger binoculars but they're just too difficult to hold steady by hand, I even find the 8x42s shake about quite a bit, I'm going to buy a bracket to mount them on my camera tripod.

I bought mine from Amazon and they arrived in tip-top condition.

To be honest I find all this talk of needing to see faint objects a bit wasted on a complete beginner - like me, I expect them to be so bewildered by the vastness of space that some distant faint object known only by some catalogue number won't be high on their agenda of things to see for several years, if ever; there's enough well known objects to keep a novice busy for a very long time.