Casual star gazing

[Joeboy]

Hey guys,
I've got a nice wee tripod mounted scope with a go to mount on it out here. It's great for Winter when I have more time but largely day to day I'd like a half decent set of binocs just to grab and gaze when the moment takes me. Nothing fancy or too pro. Any advice for about £100? Happy to go searching for used but would like some hints? TIA.

[spread-tee]

Don't go for too high a power 10* ish is about as high as you can sensibly use with hand held instruments, likewise a seventy MM object lens is about as heavy as you can comfortably hold for a while. A hundred quid is not a lot for a decent set of binos, new you may struggle get much that is well corrected, so may suffer with a bit of colour fringing around bright stars. there is a lot of stuff on the second hand market though so you could find a bargain.

Desp

[nowty]

I have these two which are either side of your budget, I 've had them for a long time while and they both had good reviews at the time, I don't know if anything out there is better just now. I also have a 6 inch Casgrain telescope which is a bit lost on me with the light pollution I get.

The important thing with binoculars is don't go for big magnification and none of those Zoom magnification crap ones please.
Aperture size is more important than magnification, but quality optics and coating is important too.
X x Y
X = magnification
Y = Aperture size

£59 (10x50)
https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/ac ... tml#SID=16
Really lightweight 825g, for the price you won't get better optics and much more comfortable than the bigger one below.

£170 (15x70)
https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/ac ... ml#SID=675
Big and heavy, 1620g BUT moons of Jupiter and the moon are crazy if you can hold it still enough.

[Bugtownboy]

Joe, I use a pair of Olympus DPS-I 8x40 for watching birds/wildlife. They have a good hand feel, good protective coating and are not heavy. Should be round the £80-100 mark.

Olympus optics are very good - maybe not as good as Nikon/Leitz/Swarovski but a good value option.

We used to rate high end Olympus microscopes when I was working - again, maybe not quite as good as Leitz, but the difference in performance wasn’t worth the extra cost of Leitz.

Probably 8x40 is best suited for nature watching, but it might be a place to start.

[Oldgreybeard]

I'm going to suggest an off-the-wall option. A couple of years ago I installed a replacement CCTV system and fitted IP cameras in place of the much older analogue system I installed when we were still building the house. I added a pan, tilt, zoom camera, with a 20X zoom, in order to record the hedgehogs in the garden. By accident, I discovered that the low light capability of this camera, plus the zoom lens, meant that it was remarkably good for looking at the stars and moon. As a bonus, being able to sit indoors on a cold, clear, night and point the camera wherever I wish, whilst watching the image on the TV.

[spread-tee]

Another important consideration is the exit pupil of the binocular. Your dark adapted eye will have a pupil diameter of about 7mm when in your twenties but that will decrease as you get older. I am in my mid sixties and my pupil is down to about 5mm or so. If the exit pupil of the instrument is much more than your pupil diameter you will in effect waste some of the light gathered by the objective. You can work out the exit pupil if you know the focal length of the objective and the eyepiece, but a quick and dirty way is to directly measure it by holding the binocular up to a bright sky and use a steel rule directly on the illuminated spot at the eyepiece. The lower the power the bigger the exit pupil

As Nowty said look for good coatings on the object lens, a greenish tinge is usually a good sign, blueish not quite so good if they look clear best steer clear.

Desp

[Joeboy]

Thank you lads, a lot of advice and info there. Jupiter was overhead last night. Might take the time to set scope up for tonight and try out the new eyes. Found a few sets of celestron skymaster 15x70 on ebay, not expensive. Watching a couple.

[Stinsy]

I bought a set of Nikon 10x50s a few years back. They offer spectacular image quality. 10x took a bit of practice to learn how to hold them steady and 50mm is as heavy as you want to hold for any length of time. So I wouldn’t recommend anything bigger than that for hand held. You do need to spend more than £100 for a decent set though…

[SafetyThird]

Folks have mostly covered what I'd have said. 8x50's were my go-to when I was doing astronomy more seriously in my youth. A tripod mount is well worth buying/making for heavier binos, makes sitting in a deck chair and gazing at the moon(s) much easier on the arms

[Joeboy]

Folks have mostly covered what I'd have said. 8x50's were my go-to when I was doing astronomy more seriously in my youth. A tripod mount is well worth buying/making for heavier binos, makes sitting in a deck chair and gazing at the moon(s) much easier on the arms

Thank you all, I will go view Jupiter tonight and hope to see a moon go blasting past.

Was up last night a I could see a cluster with naked eye, fancying delving deeper.



https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/sky ... to/p,14987