Advice or tips on binocular use

[WestAusChris]

Hi All

Being on a tight budget i just purchased Saxon 25-125x80 Large Aperture Zoom Binoculars (yet to arrive)

I know these arent the best binoculars around and i did try buying from AOE but their site is down and not even emails are going through but i wondered if these will do for a couple of years to get myself used to star gazing and if so what sort of things can i expect to see using these binoculars??

I live in the south west of Western Australia, semi rural with no street lights so pollution is pretty much 0 and the milky way looks like its falling ontop of you we have very clear nights :)

I also downloaded the free program Stellarium to try and familiarise myself with what i can see over this way.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

P.S i do have a camera tripod its just not a very fancy one

[Suzy]

Hi Chris, :welcome: to our forum. You are very lucky that you get to enjoy the beautiful Milky Way where you live; I have to make do with suburbia and light pollution. :sadeyes: A good pair of binoculars will see you through many years, and if and when you do get a telescope, they will still be highly used.

I'm sorry I don't know anything about these binoculars, so I will let other more experienced people here help you out :). I do however have a couple of links for you to look at, specifically for binocular objects.

http://lightandmatter.com/binosky/binosky.html
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-374-0-0-1-0.html (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/../63-374-0-0-1-0.html)

And, a book by Patrick Moore "Observing The Night Sky With Binoculars". You can preview this book on that site by clicking on "google preview". If you do decide to get this book, Book Depository in the UK are fantastic. They offer free shipping (no matter how heavy the order, or quantity) and orders are received within 10 days & sooo cheap compared to Australia! I now find myself addicted to this website - it's all just too easy and cheap - and see you just made me go there again didn't you Chris - didn't you! :rolleyes::lol:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780521793902/Exploring-the-Night-Sky-with-Binoculars

Enjoy Chris! :D

Kind regards,
Suzy.

[Barrykgerdes]

They should be great to get you started. Firstly you will need something reasonably firm in the way of a tripod to mount them on because the minimum focal length is much too long for hand use. Your maximum FOV will only be about 2 degrees

Don't try to use the maximum zoom till you get used to them. If you have a lap top run Stellarium and see if you can see the same sort of star patterns then pan around till you can find some objects. other than planets and the moon you will be able to see the brighter deep sky objects like M42 and the Magelenic clouds, tuc 47 etc.

With a good stable mount you will be able to zoom in on objects and start to resolve finer detail.


Barry

[dannat]

zoom binoculars generally get bad reviews, they may be OK at the lowest magnification of 25x maybe 30x, i have checked zoom's at 30x and the image shows degradation - then it drops away steeply.
At 25x you will need a sturdy tripod (which is really required from 15x & up) -the image shakes too much without a solid mounting
if you look at skymaps.com & download the S hemisphere they have a small telescope/bino section which each month has sevral tragets for you to look at.
IN aus look for a book by RObert Bee

[WestAusChris]

Thankyou for all the tips everyone, very much appreciated.

I will see how they go on my tripod and if worse comes to worse i can always buy a better quality one.

Im just hoping after paying $229 for the bino's they will atleast let me see something that will keep me interested :)

Thankyou for the links too Suzy :)

[erick]

Hi Chris :)

If you have a regular camera tripod, you may find it is at its limit with these binoculars. You might need to buy a very sturdy one. But see how you go.

Yes, Robert Bee's great little book will help. But with 25 magnification, you will see more than that book covers:-

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=48026
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=41298

[WestAusChris]

Thanks Eric

Will see if they can get it in at the public library, if not will track down a copy.

Lets just hope that some of the bad reviews of Saxon bino's are just people expecting ALOT more from them.

Id be very happy to see some planets, nebulae etc have to start somewhere on a tight budget :)

[WadeH]

Hi there Chris, dont forget comets! I own a AOE 30X100 bino and they are great. Like yourself I only have a camera tripod atm and while a little shaky it does the job until I get something better.
It is amazing what can be seen whith binos, remember they are just two refractors side by side.
You should have a great time with them. BTW, where down south are you? I was down at Walpole for a week recently and the skies were just magnificent.

[erick]

Contact Robert directly to buy his book:-

http://www.macastro.org.au/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66:heavensabove&catid=41:categorymerch

Planets won't be all that impressive, but for globular clusters, open clusters, galaxies and nebulae - you'll pull a lot out of the sky - and yes, comets!

And during the day, terrestrial use will be good as well.

[WestAusChris]

Hi Wade

Im in bridgetown and just out of the town its self so on a clear night with no town lights the stars look amazing.

Cant wait to look through them and see what i can find.

I will keep you all posted once the bino's arrive and will give you an 'amateurish' review of them :)

Thankyou for the link aswell Eric, appreciate all the help and advice.

[WadeH]

Nice area Chris, you should have some great viewing down there.

Some good binocular objects to begin with would be any Messier list and many NGC objects as well.


Some easy starter objects could be:

Antares - red giant
Sirius - bluewhite, brightest star in the sky
Alpha centauri - double star
Omega centauri - globular
47 Tucanae - globular
Carina nebula
Orion nebula
Tarantula nebula
The moon - obvious
And of course - Andromeda galaxy in October (10deg. above due north)
After these the skies the limit, sorry I had to say that.

[WestAusChris]

Thankyou Wade

Cant wait to get out on the deck once the bino's arrive, i have to stop looking at the website i bought it from im always checking to see if its been posted yet which ofcourse it hasnt so its making the wait longer :)

I noticed you have Saxon bino's aswell, any pleasing comments about them at all??