Astronomy Telescopes And Binoculars Bringng The Stars

Astronomy Telescopes And Binoculars Bring in The Stars

Astronomy telescopes and complementary binoculars bring the Solar System to you.

Find, Compare, and Buy Telescopes - View all Optics

Getting Started In Sky Gazing. The most economical way to get started in astronomy is with a pair of binoculars. As you progress in observing lunar eclipses, meteor showers, visits from comets, satellites overhead, you will want to get a telescope. The reporter always tells you that you don't need a telescope; a good pair of binoculars will do fine.

Begin With Binoculars For Viewing The Heavens

Determining Simple Technical Specs. One dimension of astronomy binoculars is easy to calculate: The exit pupil (the diameter of the image you see if you hold the binoculars away from you and look at the eyepieces) is the size of the objective lens divided by the magnification power of the binoculars. For example, 7x50 binoculars (7x magnification, 50 mm objective lens) have an exit pupil of 50 divided by 7 or just over 7 mm.

Your Eye Pupil-Size Matters - Your Age Too. When your eyes are dark-adapted, your pupils are approximately 7 mm in diameter when you are young, generally no more than 6 mm if you are over 30 years old. That means you are going to get the best results with binoculars that have an exit pupil dimension as close to the 6-7 mm range as possible. If you want higher magnification, that means you need a bigger objective in order to maintain a large enough exit pupil. Astronomy binoculars are usually designed with that ratio in mind.

Multi-Coating For Best Brightness. Another consideration is brightness. Fully multi-coated optics as a general rule transmit more light to the eyepiece than lesser grades of optics. But particular manufacturers have proprietary lens coatings, often designed for particular applications, that give them a brightness advantage over other brands. For astronomy, you want the best brightness you can afford, preferably tuned to filter out the wavelengths associated with light pollution.

Getting The Right Magnifying Power For Your Night Sky Hunting. What about magnification? The higher the power of the binoculars, the more you can see of faint, distant objects. But higher power also means a narrower field of view. That makes it harder to find particular objects if you are just looking through hand-held binoculars and waving them around the sky. So the best combination may be high power and a tripod or other adjustable mount. Other possibilities include zoom binoculars and image stabilized binoculars, either of which can help you find what you are looking for and keep it in your field of view.

Look For The Leading Brands

Top Brands. There is no single model or brand of astronomy binoculars that is best for everyone, but it makes sense to look at brands that identify particular models as best for astronomy. These include Celestron, Leica, Meade, Nikon, and Steiner.

Other companies offer spotting scopes and giant binoculars that can double for use in astronomy; so if you want one large instrument for multiple purposes, you should browse those categories, too. And if you want to be able to take photographs of what you see, look for a spotting scope with a camera adapter.

Copyright 2004-2012 S&T US LLC