Dennis Simmons (Dennis) has kindly written a great and very comprehensive guide on buying and using Binoculars for Astronomy.
Dennis' article is about as comprehensive as you can get and has everything you need to know about choosing a set of binoculars for astronomy. It's a great guide for newcomers to Astronomy, where the first advice given to them is "buy a pair of binoculars". This guide will help to educate you in choosing the right pair!
Now - as an adjunct to this, go and do yourselves a favour peoples, and buy or read a book written by a fellow club member of the Macarthur Astronomical Society in Sydney, Bob Bee, called "Heavens Above - A binocular guide to the southern skies". A very good publication for we SCP'ers.
Now - as an adjunct to this, go and do yourselves a favour peoples, and buy or read a book written by a fellow club member of the Macarthur Astronomical Society in Sydney, Bob Bee, called "Heavens Above - A binocular guide to the southern skies". A very good publication for we SCP'ers.
Now - as an adjunct to this, go and do yourselves a favour peoples, and buy or read a book written by a fellow club member of the Macarthur Astronomical Society in Sydney, Bob Bee, called "Heavens Above - A binocular guide to the southern skies". A very good publication for we SCP'ers.
Thanks for the information and link – much appreciated.
It’s terrific to see local astronomy publications like this. I’ll update the article to include the reference to this book, for those that may read the article but not browse the discussion.
Thanks for the information and link – much appreciated.
It’s terrific to see local astronomy publications like this. I’ll update the article to include the reference to this book, for those that may read the article but not browse the discussion.
Cheers
Dennis
A pleasure Dennis. It's a great read for people of all skill levels, and this is the book that got my wife Jenny interested in the night sky too.
Thank you Dennis, I came on this evening to ask around about the best binoculars to look at prior to purchasing something suitable and the first thing I saw was yours. Great info and I am sure it will be a big help in my decission making. Well Done
Last edited by Neil Dwiar; 02-03-2007 at 08:29 PM.
Reason: cant spell
My copies arrived and I'm very happy with Robert's book.
It would be great for a binocular beginner. Robert has aimed the book at 10x, 12x users. Since I'm working at 20x or 30x, there are objects I could view that he doesn't mention, but I can supplement his text with my other documents and maps. The most useful for me is Robert's tour of 56 individual constellations - straightforward diagrams and descriptions of where to look and of what you are seeing.
I tested it out last night. I followed his tour for Orion and was starting on Leo when cloud (unpredicted by every weather forecast ) covered the sky and spoilt the show. But I had an enjoyable hour's viewing and Robert took me places in Orion I hadn't been before.
Thanks for you great article it has helped me allot and has answered a few questions that I have had, I have a pair of binoculars but no matter what I do with them when I look through them I get two of the one thing I am looking at like double vision. They are 8-24 x 50 but I think that the eye pices are to wide for my eys and that is why I cant get them to work properly, any help on this matter would be most helpful.
Eugene, that doesn't sound good! They are probably out of collimation. As you describe them, they are zoom eyepieces? Have you ever had a good view through them? Can you take them back to where you bought them for checking and maybe replacement? If not, I'm happy to look at them if you want to bring them over - I'm just up the road from you.
Hi Eric, Thanks for the help I have contacted the shop that I brought them from as you have stated and I will let you know how I go with it, If they wont replace them I would gladly bring them to you to have a look at them as they are useless at the moment and if I do use them I start to feel icky. At the moment I am using my old pair that I had for years they are Panda 8 x 30. The new ones are Condor 8-24 zoom x 50, I should have just brought some from the local shop instead of an online store then I could have tried them before I brought them.
Sorry to hear of your troubles with the binocular.
I’ve looked through several binoculars, from budget to top of the range and although the quality of the image changed dramatically from the low end to the top end, my eyes were always comfortable and relaxed when the bino’s were nicely collimated.
At face value, it seems your binocular is probably not collimated, so your eyes/brain are struggling trying to make sense of the poor image and I suspect this will certainly make you feel quite uncomfortable.
Optical defects such as chromatic aberration or coma at the edges would produce an image that is poor quality, but if the binocular is collimated, your eyes should still feel relaxed.
Ok Eric looks like I might have to take you up on that offer if that is ok, I brought 2 of them from him one for me and my wife Raelene. The reply from him was:
Hi Eugene,
When I checked these they were fine before sending.
I think the problem is easily fixed. Can you please unscrew the main lenses and the rescrew them in. This should reset the collimation so that there are no double images.
Please do this and let me know.
Now I don't think taking off the main lenses and the putting them back on is really going to do anything??
Sure Eugene, send me a PM and we'll arrange a time. We can check them during daylight hours and set collimation then. If you have a tripod they mount on, please bring that - else we'll see if they can be mounted on one of mine. It helps to have the binoculars rock steady to see what is going on.
His response is pretty "sus". So a barrel or both barrels unscrewed themselves and cross-threaded themselves during transport?
I have seen a cheap pair of binoculars where one barrel had been cross-threaded. Obviously no-one looked through them at the factory before they were shipped.
However, have a look and see if one or both barrels look to be on crooked? See if one will turn (undo) and turn it quarter turn by quarter turn for a turn or two and see if the view through the eyepiece changes. Probably not if a barrel is cross threaded, but maybe it will if one of the objective lenses just needs a rotation relative to the barrel.
I don't know zoom eyepieces in binoculars. Could be something funny happening in one of them?
Anywhay, happy to have a look.
Wait a minute - you said two pairs? Are both behaving exactly the same? Could always be a systemmatic error in the factory?
Ok Eric, I tried what you said and nothing changed so I took them out and they aren't cross threaded so put them back in and again no change??
So I swapped them still no change so I put them back as they were, so I guess the mirrors are out.