Bino advice

[styleman333]

I showed my old man the iss Passover on Saturday night and he is hooked . Now he wants some binos and just rung me and said the pawn shop had some precision Optical binos 20x80s for sale for 220 bucks . Does anyone know the quality of theses binos and whether it's a good buy ?

[dannat]

a quick search of that brand name mostly calls up imported chinese binoculars - i think 220 may be a bit of a risk from a pawn shop.
i would tend to go for a recognised telescope retailer..either aoe.com.au or andrewscom.com.au or bintel.com.au
I like 15x70 for light weight and good field of view, but 20x80 - especially the triplet variety is very popular here.
Keep in mind once you get above 10x magnification (the first number) - the bino is very difficut to hand hold - and a tripod is usually necessary

[Allan_L]

Depends on how they have been treated.

20x80 sound a little heavy. You will need a tripod probably.

20 being magnification and 80 being aperture, the field of view may be a bit small.

But read this:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/76-308-0-0-1-0.html

Personally the best binos I know of for wide field astronomical use are the Orion mini giants. 9x63.
Light enough to hand hold (but better with tripod as will any bino).
They are wide field of view and that makes them easy to navigate the night sky. And the image is clear and crisp.

See a recent bino thread discussion in the beginners forum
here http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=56486

and a very comprehensive article is introduced by iceman
here http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=17825

happy reading, cheers

[michaellxv]

I picked up some 9x60 of this brand for $70. They are not the best binos in the world. $70 worth yes, $220 worth no.