could you advise me on binoculars please?

[Raju]

i had a celestron upclose which was 10X50. i was told 10X50 was the best ones to acompany any astronomer....now, my brother had these last year and he gave it back because of optics mess up for a reason, they dont stay alligned. i bought it and same thing happened.

i returned it and got my full money back (£22). now i once went to an astronmy club and this man had one i looked thru.... i must admit it was blumming amazing and it was a 10X50 too... it was just so much better than mine.

i was so amazed by it i kind of forgot to ask him where or what make was it.

so please could someone recommend me a very good pair of binoculars that are ideally under £30 or around that price.

it will be greatly appreciated.

also what are your thoughts about 15x50 binoculars? any good?

[Peter Drew]

I still think that the Lidl/Aldi etc 10x50 binoculars badged Bresser/Meade/Rocktrail offer the best value under £30. I have a Bressr pair that give almost as good a performance as my best expensive model, and they are much lighter. I would avoid 15x50, they will need a tripod to hold them steady which rather defeats the ease of use of 10x50. Don't be tempted either by high powered zooms!

[great_bear]

I have 12x50 and even those are a bit too high powered for handheld use.

I think 7x50 is best, rather than 10x50

[Ad Astra]

I won't advise on brands (I'm in the US), but 10x50 is a favorite for many astronomers, and usually easy to hand hold.

Magnification and weight both make holding a binocular steady more difficult. Anything over 10x or 70mm and I think you will need a tripod to use it properly. That's not necessisarily a bad thing at all - the views will readily repay you, and you can start with a relatively inexpensive camera tripod (you may have one already?).

The local astro club is your best resource - there's nothing like trying things out in the dark before you fork over your hard earned coin.

I hope that helps,

Dan

[Peter Drew]

7x50 used to be the best recommendation, however, modern day sky pollution means that the slightly higher magnification of 10x darkens the field somewhat and improves the night time performance. You would be hard put to find a good budget priced 7x50 these days.