how to choose binoculars for astronomy ?

Question

i dont want to use a telescope right now , i want to use binoculars

Answer 1

Biggest objective lenses possible. 80mm +, if you can afford them.

If you go for biguns, they need to be mounted. I have seen a contraption you can buy where the support fits against your chest.

The Japanese make a huge pair 25x150, that are on a great mounting. very expensive, but I would get these before telescope any day - these are what amateurs discover comets with (and then you get your name attached to it).

The least pair you should get is 7x50. These are brilliant if you just want to have a general scan around the sky. They can be hand held, and of course will double for general use - watching races, girls in the apartment opposite, you name it.

Answer 2

Do you want hand held or mounted binoculars? Binoculars over 10x are difficult to hold steady and must be used on a mount for best results. Even lower power binoculars will benefit from mounting. The exception is image-stabilizing binoculars.

For hand-held observing, 50mm objectives are most popular, in either 7x or 10x. I wouldn't recommend anything smaller than 40mm.

The exit pupil of the binocular will tell you how fat a beam of light they put out. Bigger is brighter, until the exit pupil is bigger than your pupil, at which point you gain no additional brightness. The typical dark-adapted eye has a 7mm pupil, but that decreases to 5 around middle age for most people. The exit pupil is the objective diameter divided by the magnification, so a 7x50 binocular has a 7.1mm exit pupil.

Larger binoculars, with 70mm or larger objectives will show you lots more than 50mm lenses, but are generally too heavy and too high-powered to had hold. Parallelogram type mounts work very well with large binoculars.

Avoid binoculars with ruby or other anti-haze coatings. These coatings reduce light throughput and are therefore no good for astronomy. Also avoid "fixed focus" binoculars, under the night sky they tend to be "unfocused".

For astronomy, you don't need ruggedized or waterproof binoculars, or quick focus. Individual eyepiece focusing will work fine, since you only have to focus them once.

Answer 3

nic s has given you the full information needed on binoculars and he is correct.

However, if you are wearing glasses, then you select a binocular which adjusts the lense power of your glasses.

All said and done, to beging with, you better use a telescope. Once you learn to scan the sky, then only the binocular will be useful.

Answer 4

10x50 provides extra magnification yet meaning the view shakes somewhat extra, 7x50 is somewhat simpler to hold stable. The Olympus 10x50 DPS I is in funds and correctly known. A monocular gets around the ordinary problem with low-fee binoculars of undesirable collimation - the left and precise aspects no longer being coated up, inflicting eyestrain whilst watching. Helios, Hawke, and Barr & Stroud all make 10x50 examples which would be available in-funds.

Answer 5

The important feature for astronomy is the diameter of the lens, which determines how faint of an object you can see. Bigger lens = more stuff you can see. The magnification isn't so important.

You might also look into something that's comfortable to hold and easy to keep steady.

Answer 6

I think first of all you should go for a telescope and not binoculars...

Answer 7

Naked eye will do. Infinity minus one.