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I guess the most common size binoculars used would be 7x50's. They are very common and made by many manufacturers. The price and quality will vary tremendously though. If you get cheapies, they will have all sorts of defects - astigmatism, reflections, coma etc - which will make it almost impossible to focus stars into a nice clean dot! They may however, give quite reasonable "terrestrial views". So if you try some out, don't just expect to get good star images from the ones that give a good view of a bulding across the road. The best time to try them out would be if you could shop in the evening after the sun goes down, and walk outside with them.
Alternatively, you could spend a lot of money, and it is not difficult to spend a couple of grand on a pair of binoculars, even 7x50's, you will get excellent optics, but you could have bought a cheaper pair and a pretty nifty telescope. I guess it comes down to how much you want to spend and taking into account the details given in previous replies.
I have a pair of Saxon 11x80s which are OK, they don't give perfect images but they do the job, but even they cost me a couple of hundred last year. The 11x magnification is about the limit for handheld, 7x is pretty easy to hold steady and light enough to hold up for a while.
Like telescopes, steer clear of "department store" binoculars, better to spend money on a reasonable pair than some cheapies that you will come to hate! The major scope manufactures make reasonable binos, like Meade, Celestron in the mid price range. Saxon, Orion etc are cheaper and probably lower quality. If you have lots of money, you could look at manufacturers that are known for their optics, Pentax, Zeiss, Leica etc but then you are looking at lots of money. I would try to not buy a brand that doesn't make other types of "optical" equipment...this will keep you away from most of the cheap and nasty ones.
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