Binoculars for star gazing

Im after some advise and want to know what type of binoculars I should buy for some amateur star gazing...Im want to spend no more than £50.... Thanks

reply to post by booda


erm why dont you just buy a telescope.

reply to post by booda


Binoculars are ideal and advisable for a beginner as it's a great way to find your way around the sky without the restrictive small field of view that a telescope gives you. Telescopes can come later.

My advice would be a pair of 10x50's (10x magnification and 50mm objective lenses). Celestron among others make perfectly suitable binoculars for about £40 upwards.

Dealers such as David Hinds Ltd and Telescope House are two highly reputable dealers who'll offer you plenty of advice even if you aren't spending many hundreds.

Happy stargazing

reply to post by booda


I'll second the recommendation of 10x50s. Aperture is more important than magnification in a set of binoculars, even to the extent that I would argue against going over 10x. Anything higher tends to yield unstable images unless you mount it on a tripod, plus, you really won't see anything at 20x that's not visible at 10x. Magnification doesn't start becoming useful until you get up around at least 40x or so, IMO.

I'm not going to suggest a manufacturer, other than to say that in general, you get what you pay for.

If you're really serious about it, then you're going to want to spend more than $50. Like vor78 said , you really do get what you pay for. Mine are Olympus. I got them about 7-8 years ago. I think I paid $150-$200 for them. But if you're going to be using them a lot, I'd invest in a tripod or maybe even look at purchasing the motion-correcting binocs. The slightest motion in your hands will send the field into chaos. You'll be surprised at how irritating this can be.

[edit on 7/12/2008 by DarthChrisious]

I use some real cheapos.. but they were free, so... You know what they say..
"If its free, its for me!"

I would certainly recommend not wasting any $$$ on binocs.. and instead save up for the telescope.

If you do use or must have binocs.. get a tripod...

Originally posted by DarthChrisious
You'll be surprised at how irritating this can be.

Very very very true...

thanks for all your input everyone.....I keep hearing different things about binocs and telescopes.....im just starting off and have been using Stellarium which has helped me loads in identifying whats in the sky....just want to see them a bit clearer now.....