On Wed, 06 Oct 2010 22:44:12 +0100, Craven wrote:
Hi, can anyone recommend a pair? I was told to get 10 x 50s, but when I
use an old pair everything is bouncing around like crazy - and I'm sure
my hands don't shake that badly. Is there anything I can do to avoid this?

Also, the adjuster to compensate for differences between the left and
right eye - is this only set once or does it change with the distance of
the object I'm focusses on (I realise this doesn't change with
astronomy, just if I use the binoculars for any short distance work).

Thanks for any help, it's much appreciated.

I've always found binoculars to be a rather tedious and unsatisfactory
way to do astronomy. I realise that conventional wisdom is to start
with a pair and graduate to a telescope, however I also feel that the
conditions (bino's are cheap, ubquitous whereas telescopes are costly
and uncommon) that gave rise to that advice is well out of date now.
I've never been able to hold a pair of binoculars steady for any length
of time - nowhere near as long as I like to look through the eyepiece of
a telescope for. Plus, you can't let others "take a look" without losing the
object that's being observed - at least not without putting them on
a tripod or mount, which adds another £50 - £100 to your outlay.

If you are determined to get a pair of binoculars primarily for astronomy,
I'd suggest making sure they have a mounting "nut" as you find on SLR
cameras, so you can place them on a mount. However, a normal tripod may
not be high enough (plus they quickly lose their stability as they are
extended upwards - and as more weight / bigger binoculars are placed on
them, so you end up with everything bouncing around again) - high enough,
as you won't be looking at things on the horizon, but above you so the
bino's will have to be above your head. There are specialist ones that
have 90° eyepieces which making viewing upwards easier, but we're getting
into the high-price/premium instruments now.

What I've done is build a "parallelogram" mount out of wood for my binoculars.
A quick search will show you many designs. You still get a crick in your
neck if you look upwards for too long, but they are more stable than
hand-holding and you can move them up and down without losing the object
they're pointing at.

With all this palaver, I still reckon a cheap telescope on a cheap
mount beats a pair of binoculars, hand-held or tripod mounted - plus you
can always sell it on ebay if you find astronomy's not for you. So the
financial risk that binoculars might possibly reduce isn't going to be
that great these days.

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