"John Honan" wrote in message ...

At this point I want to get a new pair of binoculars or a spotting scope

First, as other people have already said, it makes no sense
to buy a spotting scope if astronomy is your primary purpose.
You would end up paying a lot for features that you do need,
and some of which are actually counter-productive, notably
the erecting prism, which introduces considerable optical
aberration. Moreover, the 45-degree viewing angle of many
spotting scopes is far inferior to the standard 90-degree
viewing angle of astro scopes when viewing subjects well
above the horizon. You could get a very nice astro scope
for the cost of that 80mm Nikon spotting scope.

Second, binoculars and telescopes both have their place
in astronomy, and to my mind, their uses barely intersect,
although there are some large binocular telescopes and
some small wide-field refractors that blur the lines.
Binoculars excel at wide-field low-power viewing. Even
truly giant binoculars like 40x150 models operate at
magnifications that are modest for a cheap department-
store telescope, let alone a serious astro scope.
At those low powers, the only way to increase the
amount of light getting to your eyes is to use both
of them. And yes, since you ask, I can see quite a
lot more in 15x70 binoculars than in my 70mm astro
scope at 15X. On the other hand, with the exception
of objects that don't fit in the field, I can almost
always see more in my 70mm scope at 50X than I can
in 15x70 binoculars, usually much more.

Personally, I cannot imagine going through life without
at least one pair of binoculars. Their uses are legion,
quite ignoring astronomy. Moreover, you can get a
perfectly acceptable pair of binoculars in the U.S.
for $50, a pretty-darn-good pair for $100, and an
excellent pair for $200. You can also spend big bucks
if you want, but then you are chasing that notorious
last 5% of capability that can eat up 90% of your money.
As for what specifications to choose, if you want to
use them standing up, I would avoid anything above
7X or 8X. For serious binocular astronomy, a reclining
chair is an essential (and very cheap!) accessory,
and in a reclining chair 10X is just fine and many
people can handle 15X. 7x35, 7x50, 8x40, 10x50, and
15x70 are all popular sizes, each with its advantages
and disadvantages. The lower sizes will be more
widely useful for terrestrial applications. Or you
could get two pairs of binoculars, one for terrestrial
and casual astronomy and one for serious astronomy,
and still not spend more than $250 U.S.

Anyway, if you keep the expense on the binoculars low,
then you can start to think seriously about the best
astro scope for your budget. And when all is said and
done, although almost all serious amateur astronomers
own and use binoculars, most of us spend 10 hours at
our scopes for every hour that we spend with binoculars.

By the way, you suggest that binoculars are "easier to hold"
than telescopes. Wrong thinking! You don't hold telescopes,
you mount them. Even 7X binoculars show much more when mounted
than when hand-held, and mounting is essential above 15X or so.
A telescope's mount is every bit as important as the optical
tube, and typically roughly equal in cost. Unless you want to
do serious astrophotography, in which case the mount is likely
to cost much more than the telescope.

- Tony Flanders