Binoculars and telescopes and other astronomical accessories and are at the heart of of amateur astronomy.

What helped me familiarise myself with the night sky was a good set of binoculars. It was only after using them for a couple of years that I upgraded to a telescope.

We're all warned out the quality of 60mm telescopes sold by department stores. But my folks didn't know any better, and that's what they bought me one Christmas, and to a 12-year old kid, it opened up the universe.

Astronomy Binoculars

Binoculars have a role to play in astronomy. Good binoculars for astronomy cost less than a telescope and are an excellent entry point for someone familiarising themselves with the night sky.

Great play is made of the magnification factor of telescopes with ads for cheap scopes screaming 500x magnification! However, magnification isn't everything. Binoculars use a much lower magnification factor, typically between 8x and 25x, but this results in a much wider field of view which makes it easier to navigate across the sky.

Because of this wider field of view, you also get to see the 'big' picture. And, because you're using both eyes, there's less eyestrain.

Binocular viewers are available for telescopes and those who use them swear by them (rather than at them!). However, since these are a piece of specialised equipment, they will cost more than a pair of binoculars. There is also the additional cost of buying two eyepieces for each binocular viewer.

A typical set of binoculars will be 10x50s (10x magnification and front lenses 50mm in diameter). More powerful models are available - 20x60s are available from $150 upwards and you can get 20x80s for as little as $90 (yes, cheaper than 20x60s).

Astronomy binoculars are quite heavy and you can tire easily pointing them up at the sky for more than a minute or two. Also, because of their greater magnification, any tremor in your hands will also be magnified and stars will bounce around in the view.

For long-duration viewing, you ought to get a tripod and a binocular tripod adapter which lets you securely mount the binoculars on it and easily point them around the sky without strain.

Large scale objects such as comets or the Moon are well suited to astronomy binoculars. The Moon through 20x binoculars can be breathtaking, bringing it close enough to see relief in craters and mountains but you'll see it in 3d as well, something that doesn't happen when looking through a telescope because you only use a single eye with one.

Astronomy binoculars for beginners are available from a wide range of manufacturers: Barska, Zhumell, Celestron, Meade, Canon, and Pentax.

Serious amateur astronomers may want to invest in top-brand models from Nikon, Vixen, Kowa and Fujinon. Expect to pay $1,000 and upwards to $5,600 depending on the make and model. Why would anyone want to pay such an amount for a pair of binoculars? They're the best instrument for comet hunting for one. The 3-D view they give makes you feel like you're out in space. The better models use interchangeable eyepieces so you can change the magnification and field of view.

Conclusion

You can start using a pair of binoculars much more quickly than setting up a telescope so if the weather is very changeable where you live, they might be a better option for sky viewing. Naturally, binoculars go into your luggage a lot more easily when you're travelling allowing you to view the sky from your holiday destination with ease.

All in all, astronomy binoculars are a much better option for casual viewers because of their portability, usefulness for both terrestrial and astronomical observing and the fact that they are cheaper than a decent telescope.

As with almost everything else in life, you get hat you pay for with binoculars. Cheap (in every sense of the word) binoculars can cost as little as $10 while the most expensive cost thousands of dollars. My experience says good astronomy binoculars will cost at least $90 if you want a quality pair worth owning.

Gary Nugent has been creating astronomy software for over 10 years and his popular Night Sky Observer site contains plenty of astronomy facts. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory

categories: amateur astronomy,astronomy,science,binoculars,telescopes,hobbies,hobby

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