Binoculars around £250

Can anyone recommend some good binoculars for Astronomy (and hopefully Bird
watching etc) around £250 ?.

What size should I look for and are the Canon IS useful ?

Thanks

There are many available.. either the Helios 11x70 which are about £200 or
Opticron 11,20,30 x 80 @£250 or the new Celestron 25x100's @ £300

All these need a stable mount though either BC&F Star Raker which is £199 or
a Tripod and "L" mount

failing that a good pair of 7x50's would do hand held

Cheers

Andy
"dylan" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend some good binoculars for Astronomy (and hopefully
Bird
watching etc) around £250 ?.

What size should I look for and are the Canon IS useful ?

Thanks

Oh forgot, the Canon IS are fantastic but not cheap your looking at £1000
for any decent size


"Andy" wrote in message
news:atSoc.234$PX3.202@newsfe1-win...
There are many available.. either the Helios 11x70 which are about £200 or
Opticron 11,20,30 x 80 @£250 or the new Celestron 25x100's @ £300

All these need a stable mount though either BC&F Star Raker which is £199
or
a Tripod and "L" mount

failing that a good pair of 7x50's would do hand held

Cheers

Andy
"dylan" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend some good binoculars for Astronomy (and hopefully
Bird
watching etc) around £250 ?.

What size should I look for and are the Canon IS useful ?

Thanks

dylan wrote:
Can anyone recommend some good binoculars for Astronomy (and hopefully
Bird watching etc) around £250 ?.

You really need to define what you want from binocs. If you want
something hand-holdable, but which will also be used on a
monopod/tripod, limit yourself to 10x50. Porro prism binocs are much
better VFM than roofs. For £250 you can get some pretty fine binocs --
In your price bracket I particularly like the Opticron SR.GA 10x50 --
RRP is £255, but you can find it cheaper.

If it's going to be used almost entirely on some form of mount, you can
get up to 80mm in aperture. The best VFM in those under £250 IMO is the
Helios 15x70. Optical quality varies, so try a few.

What size should I look for and are the Canon IS useful ?

Recent discussions about the Canon IS range on the yahoogroups
[Binocular Astronomy] list and one has just started on the
cloudynights.com Binoculars forum. This latter group is truly excellent;
you will get very good advice on all aspects of binocular choice and
observing.

Best,
Stephen

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+ Stephen Tonkin | ATM Resources; Astro-Tutorials; Astro Books +
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Thanks for the advice, the forum looks very useful.

"Stephen Tonkin" wrote in message
...
dylan wrote:
Can anyone recommend some good binoculars for Astronomy (and hopefully
Bird watching etc) around £250 ?.

You really need to define what you want from binocs. If you want
something hand-holdable, but which will also be used on a
monopod/tripod, limit yourself to 10x50. Porro prism binocs are much
better VFM than roofs. For £250 you can get some pretty fine binocs --
In your price bracket I particularly like the Opticron SR.GA 10x50 --
RRP is £255, but you can find it cheaper.

If it's going to be used almost entirely on some form of mount, you can
get up to 80mm in aperture. The best VFM in those under £250 IMO is the
Helios 15x70. Optical quality varies, so try a few.

What size should I look for and are the Canon IS useful ?

Recent discussions about the Canon IS range on the yahoogroups
[Binocular Astronomy] list and one has just started on the
cloudynights.com Binoculars forum. This latter group is truly excellent;
you will get very good advice on all aspects of binocular choice and
observing.

Best,
Stephen

Remove footfrommouth to reply

--
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ Stephen Tonkin | ATM Resources; Astro-Tutorials; Astro Books +
+ (N51.162 E0.995) | http://astunit.com +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Thanks for the advice.

"Andy" wrote in message
news:atSoc.234$PX3.202@newsfe1-win...
There are many available.. either the Helios 11x70 which are about £200 or
Opticron 11,20,30 x 80 @£250 or the new Celestron 25x100's @ £300

All these need a stable mount though either BC&F Star Raker which is £199
or
a Tripod and "L" mount

failing that a good pair of 7x50's would do hand held

Cheers

Andy
"dylan" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend some good binoculars for Astronomy (and hopefully
Bird
watching etc) around £250 ?.

What size should I look for and are the Canon IS useful ?

Thanks

I was rather pleased with Orion "Mini Giant" 9x63 Binoculars. They are
less than 200 pounds from SCS Astro. The price-per-quality seems
pretty good on these. The moon and stars are excellent, you can
clearly see the Galilean moons of Jupiter and, with only a little
imagination, you can tell that Saturn has rings and Venus is a
crescent.

There a few different sizes in the "Mini Giant" range. The "Little
Giant" range is larger and also around your budget point.

I chose the Orions over similar spec Opticrons for the longer "eye
relief". My girlfriend wears glasses and can use the Orions even
without rolling the eyecups down.

Upwards of 7-10 times magnification (magnification being the first
number, A, in the AxB spec) and you will definitely need a tripod
otherwise the wobble will be unmanageable. Also, larger objective
aperture binocs will be heavy and your arms will tire after a short
while holding them up.

The larger the objective aperture diameter (eg the 63 in 9x63), the
more you will see (more and more dim objects become visible). While it
isn't really an issue for stars because they are essentially point
sources, for planetary and terrestrial viewing keeping the aperture /
magnification ratio high is a good thing. Small objective aperture
coupled with high magnification is going to give dim images for
subjects of tangible dimension.

I hope this information is useful.

Regards,
Matt Nolan.

Thanks for the useful feedback. I need to decide on the various options. I
have a 8" scope and a televid 62 which can be useful but needs a tripod. I
could do with something more general purpose and probably hand held so I'm
tending towards 10x50 or even 10x30 IS but will certainly look at the models
you quote.

Cheers

"Matt Nolan" wrote in message
om...
I was rather pleased with Orion "Mini Giant" 9x63 Binoculars. They are
less than 200 pounds from SCS Astro. The price-per-quality seems
pretty good on these. The moon and stars are excellent, you can
clearly see the Galilean moons of Jupiter and, with only a little
imagination, you can tell that Saturn has rings and Venus is a
crescent.

There a few different sizes in the "Mini Giant" range. The "Little
Giant" range is larger and also around your budget point.

I chose the Orions over similar spec Opticrons for the longer "eye
relief". My girlfriend wears glasses and can use the Orions even
without rolling the eyecups down.

Upwards of 7-10 times magnification (magnification being the first
number, A, in the AxB spec) and you will definitely need a tripod
otherwise the wobble will be unmanageable. Also, larger objective
aperture binocs will be heavy and your arms will tire after a short
while holding them up.

The larger the objective aperture diameter (eg the 63 in 9x63), the
more you will see (more and more dim objects become visible). While it
isn't really an issue for stars because they are essentially point
sources, for planetary and terrestrial viewing keeping the aperture /
magnification ratio high is a good thing. Small objective aperture
coupled with high magnification is going to give dim images for
subjects of tangible dimension.

I hope this information is useful.

Regards,
Matt Nolan.

If you want good advice forget about a telescope until you can spend
at least £7000 on a decent telescope set up.

In the meantime binoculars win hands down everytime.



Good Luck,

Bernie

"Bernie" wrote in message
om...
If you want good advice forget about a telescope until you can spend
at least £7000 on a decent telescope set up.

In the meantime binoculars win hands down everytime.

What a load of codswallop. I thought, from other of your comments you were
interested in the amateur astronomer. Please tell me what is wrong in a
relative beginner using something like a 200 mm Dobsonian, see the adverts.
I have one and wouldn't be without it.

Norman