Question about Astronomy Binocular Review?

Saturday, March 14th, 2009 at 8:52 am

William asked:

So i've been reading over the different questions about binoculars. I just want some reviews on what you can see with the different sizes.

GiantView 15x70 Large-Aperture
http://www.telescope.com/control/product…

GiantView 20x80 Large-Aperture
http://www.telescope.com/control/product…

these are both pretty cheap it seems (~250)... is that a red-flag?

GiantView 25x100 Large-Aperture
http://www.telescope.com/control/product…

ok finally MegaView 30x80 Wide Angle
these are about 500 are they worth the extra?
http://www.telescope.com/control/product…

cool thanks
ps im hoping to see lgm's on vega so...
j/k, seeing the rings of saturn would be pretty good for me. any others? any info?

Reply:

I own Celestron Pro 10x50 binoculars and Orion Little Giant 15x70 binoculars, and have tested Orion's 25x100 binoculars. I use the 10x50s 99% of the time because they're light, steady, and easy to hand hold. The 15x70s give very fine images but are very difficult to hand-hold and inconvenient on a tripod. I wasn't impressed by the 25x100s: the images were nowhere near as sharp as in the 15x70s, and they had to be used on a tripod. I'd recommend 10x50 as the best size for get prescription drugs without prescription astronomy.

No binocular will give you a satisfactory view of Saturn's rings. You need at least 25x just to detect the rings (as an oval shape) and at least 100x for a satisfying view, which requires a telescope. Binoculars are primarily used for wide field views of star clusters and galaxies, not planets. I have no idea what an "lgm" is; I've never heard that term in 50 years in astronomy!