Expert: Paul Wagner - 2/1/2007

Question
Hi..  I'm very much an amateur astronomer and I'm looking to buy a budget pair of binoculars to observe the night sky.  I would be grateful if you could inform me of the minimum magnification strength you would recommend to buy.

Many Thanks, David

Answer
Hi David:

For astronomy, the magnification isn't as important as the light-gathering power.  Binoculars are all described with two numbers.  The first is the magnification--and most are between 7X and 10X.  7X is easy to hold still...some people have trouble holding the 10X binoculars still enough to see well. I like 10X, but my wife actually gets motion sickness when she looks through them for a long period of time...

But the second number is the diameter, in mm, of the objective lenses.  Here is where I would spend the money.  7X50 get almost twice as much light as 7X35, and when you are looking at the night sky, that makes a HUGE difference.  If you can, borrow a couple of different binoculars and take them out and look at the stars.  You will be amazed at the difference that a larger lens makes.

I would check with Orion telescopes--they usually have some good binoculars, and at fairly good prices.  And they have a very good information section about what to look for.

Avoid the really cheap ones at sporting goods stores. They are almost always of very low quality.  The bad optics aren't so noticeable during the day, but when you point them at tiny little points of light in the night sky, all of a sudden you see blurs, blobs, and double images.  Not good.  My brother was once very happy with a new pair of binoculars until he pointed them at the crescent moon, and discovered that it had two or three horns added in by the bad optics.  

I don't think you can get anything worth looking at the stars with for under about $150.  Orion's Mini Giants are very nice, and won't cost much more than that. And you may be able to find some of them on ebay or used that would be less.  There is not much that can go wrong with binoculars, and if there is something wrong with them, you will notice right away.

If you do want to get something cheap, buy them at a yard sale.  You won't get quality, but at least you won't have wasted a lot of money on something that will disappoint you.

And have fun--binoculars can show you some amazing things in the sky...and I still think the most memorable viewing of the sky I have ever had was with binoculars:  twice!

Paul Wagner