What is a good binocular to use for star gazing?
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at
8:18 am
I am looking to the northern sky, but I am kind of difficult to hold my hands steady.
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 BARSKA 10X42 WATERPROOF BINOCULARS AB10141  US $.99
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 Barska Standard 12x50 Binoculars US $2.07
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 BARSKA 10 30X50MM ZOOM BINOCULARS BNIP US $19.95
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Tagged with: Binocular • gazing • Good • northern sky • Star
Any thing more than 7 x 50 will be very hard to be hand held.
The more magnification more jumping and dancing stars, So go for low magnification
There are fabulous telescope binoculars with an objective lens up to 100MM! They are quite heavy, and will need a tripod. I suggest a non-zoom model, with a lens size of 60 MM. That should get you enough light and be able to keep steady. But a tripod is always a good idea.
yosef,
A pair of 10X50’s with a wide feild of view, like the Bushnell Powerview ($54.96 at wal*mart) are a excellent pair of binoculars and IMHO easy to hold as well.
Once you get you binoculars, try the Binocular Messier Observing club from the Astronomical League. It will give you a good challenge to start observing.
Also, try to connect with your local amateur astronomy club. They can give you lots of observing tips with respect to binocular astronomy.
Finally, If you’re having trouble steadying your binoculars, you can by a mount kit for them. Attach the Binoculars to a simple broom handle or mop pole and that may help you steady them.
I also find leaning up against acar or lying flat on the ground helps keep the binoculars steady as well.
A few points here. Magnification is the enemy of stable views. 7×50 are generally considered the “standard” astro size but older people (mid thirties upwards) do not have eyes that can take in all the light they give. There are two alternatives to that – go up in magnification (usually to 10x) or down in aperture (e.g. to 42mm). 10×50s are often quoted as the way to go for this reason but that is too powerful for many people to hold hand held – a pair of 7×42s or 8×42s may be a better bet.
A bino mount is one option, but that loses the fundamental portability advantage of binos. If you are going to start erecting a mount in my view you may as well set up a telescope.
Alternatively, you might want to consider image stabilised binos. I have a pair of Canon 12×36s here that are image stabilised and are absolutely wonderful in use – it is difficult to compare them to regular binos in that they are effectively a completely different class of instrument. Alas, they are not cheap – that pair cost me £450 maybe six months ago. You can get a fairly good scope for that much, although they are not particularly expensive when compared to traditional binos of comparable optical quality.