Isabelle asked:

I am thinking of buying astronomy binoculars, but i dont know anything about it. What can i expect to see when looking at the stars through astronomy binoculars as compared to the naked eye, but also as compared to a telescope? What should i look for when buying? What brand would you recommend or what brand would you avoid?

Reply:

I've owned many different binoculars for astronomy, but the most useful have been the 10x50 size. Smaller apertures (less than 50mm) don't gather enough light; larger apertures become too heavy to hand hold for more than a few minutes. 10x is the highest magnification I can hand hold steadily, and I really believe binoculars are meant to be hand held. My second favourite binocular is 15x70. I hand hold this too, but I need to brace myself by sitting in a chair or by leaning on my car.

The view through a 10x50 binocular is greatly enhanced over what you can see with the naked eye. First of all, everything is ten times larger but, more important, it is a hundred times brighter, equivalent to 5 magnitudes.

The best binoculars I own are Celestron 10x50 and Orion 15x70, but both are really made in Japan by Vixen. You should expect to pay $100 to $200 for a good 10x50 binocular, and perhaps twice that for a good 15x70.

I've tried giant binoculars (Orion 25x100) but I found them very inconvenient to use; I'm much happier with a telescope in that aperture range.

 

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