Binocular advice?

Guvnor

Hi Guys,

Looking to purchase a pair of binoculars. They would be used general viewing not necessarily the sky at night.

Looking for something good that would say allow you to see an object at about 100m or so in good detail.

Just wondering what is the numbers to be looking for etcetera?

Any particular brands? Not to concerned if they were on a tripod - at least they would be less likely to misplaced!:D

Thanks for any help!

coylemj

First, any pair of binoculars is described as something like '7x50', in this case the '7x' refers to the magnification and the '50' refers to the diameter of the objective lens, that is to say the lens which gathers the light, the other lens being the eyepiece.

The higher the magnification the more shake there will be if you're holding the binos in your hands so it's generally reckoned that for general purpose use you should beware of getting anything bigger than '7x' and the bigger the objective lens the better thought if they're too big the binos will be too heavy to hold steady so 7X50 are generally considered good all round binos.

However if money is no object then you could consider image stabilisation (IS) binos which have an internal mechanism to cancel vibration caused by hand shake, the same facility exists in some cameras.

Canon manufacture Image Stabilisation binos and they have a very good technical description of how binos work, check out this page and download the PDF which is linked at the bottom of the page.

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Binoculars/binoculars_technology.asp

Capt'n Midnight

Buy a cheap meade/ bresser in lidl / aldi for about €20 and see how you get on before forking out big money , you can then leave them in the car or hand them on if you decide to spend a lot on a better pair
you won't get anything of use for €20 anywhere else , don't bother with zoom unless you have a stand to prevent shaking

Flukey

I would recommend starting at a set of 10 x 50.

Guvnor

Thanks for all the advice lads. In the end I was given a present of a pair of 10x50 binoculars. They were from argos and are not too bad at all.

Flukey

Now, get out there and use them. You'll have plenty of moontime this week, weather permitting, and once it is gone, the stars, nebulae, planets, galaxies etc., not to mention Comet Lulin will all come into stronger view next week. Other than when it is cloudy, there is never a bad night to be out using them to explore the night skies. There is always something to see. Of course you won't always know what it is you're seeing so the next thing to do is invest in a good pocket star atlas. Then the night skies will really open up to you.