Astronomy-Binoculars

Hi i want to buy a pair of Astronomy Binoculars.But i don,t want to spend a
fortune about £200-£250 or cheaper and would welcome any advise fromany body
that has a pair or have used them,plus can any body recommend a good site
where i can buy them many thanks for any help cheers Stephen.

"Stephen Manaton" wrote in message
...
Hi i want to buy a pair of Astronomy Binoculars.But i don,t want to spend
a
fortune about £200-£250 or cheaper and would welcome any advise fromany
body
that has a pair or have used them,plus can any body recommend a good site
where i can buy them many thanks for any help cheers Stephen.


Hi Stephen,
I bought a pair of the Celestron 15x70mm bins earlier in the year and I'm
very happy with them. They are pretty heavy so I'd say that a tripod is
essential for long use - they come with a tripod mount that makes life
easier.

I bought them from David Hinds for about £80 - I understand the same pair
are also sold under the Strathspey brand http://www.strathspey.co.uk/ and
you may get them cheaper elsewhere.

I've no doubt you can get 'better' for amounts nearer the top end of your
budget, but these are good at their price point.

One thing worth pointing out is that observing things near zenith can be
better done lying on the ground - have a look at the bottom left picture on
the Strathspey site and imagine a long session like that :-{ You can get
parallelogram mounts that would use some of the rest of your budget to make
things more comfortable.

Owen

"OG" wrote in message
...

"Stephen Manaton" wrote in message
...
Hi i want to buy a pair of Astronomy Binoculars.But i don,t want to spend
a
fortune about £200-£250 or cheaper and would welcome any advise fromany
body
that has a pair or have used them,plus can any body recommend a good site
where i can buy them many thanks for any help cheers Stephen.


Hi Stephen,
I bought a pair of the Celestron 15x70mm bins earlier in the year and I'm
very happy with them. They are pretty heavy so I'd say that a tripod is
essential for long use - they come with a tripod mount that makes life
easier.

I bought them from David Hinds for about £80 - I understand the same pair
are also sold under the Strathspey brand http://www.strathspey.co.uk/ and
you may get them cheaper elsewhere.

I've no doubt you can get 'better' for amounts nearer the top end of your
budget, but these are good at their price point.

One thing worth pointing out is that observing things near zenith can be
better done lying on the ground - have a look at the bottom left picture
on the Strathspey site and imagine a long session like that :-{ You can
get parallelogram mounts that would use some of the rest of your budget to
make things more comfortable.

Owen


I've got a set of those as well, I mount them on a monopod (easier to move
around) but they give quite a good image.

Martin

Stephen Manaton wrote:
Hi i want to buy a pair of Astronomy Binoculars.But i don,t want to spend a
fortune about £200-£250 or cheaper and would welcome any advise fromany body
that has a pair or have used them,

In that price range, you can do a lot worse than the 15x70s made by
Kunming Optical and sold here under various brand names.

plus can any body recommend a good site
where i can buy them

http://www.strathspey.co.uk

Service from John is superb!

For ideas on holding & mounting, see:
http://www.astunit.com/tonkinsastro/...binoculars.htm


Best,
Stephen

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"Stephen Tonkin" wrote in message
...
Stephen Manaton wrote:
Hi i want to buy a pair of Astronomy Binoculars.But i don,t want to spend
a
fortune about £200-£250 or cheaper and would welcome any advise fromany
body
that has a pair or have used them,

In that price range, you can do a lot worse than the 15x70s made by
Kunming Optical and sold here under various brand names.

plus can any body recommend a good site
where i can buy them

http://www.strathspey.co.uk

Service from John is superb!

For ideas on holding & mounting, see:
http://www.astunit.com/tonkinsastro/...binoculars.htm

Agreed ! Great service from Strathspey, good binoculars and under £100 as
well.

I use a Manfrotto camera tripod to hold them steady - although it's not the
best solution. There was an article in last months "sky and Telescope" on
building a binocular steadying frame for about £5, so I may try that this
weekend.

Stephen Tonkin wrote:
Stephen Manaton wrote:
Hi i want to buy a pair of Astronomy Binoculars. But i don,t want to spend a
fortune about £200-£250 or cheaper and would welcome any advise from any body
that has a pair or have used them,

In that price range, you can do a lot worse than the 15x70s made by Kunming
Optical and sold here under various brand names.
http://www.strathspey.co.uk
Service from John is superb! For ideas on holding & mounting, see:
http://www.astunit.com/tonkinsastro/...binoculars.htm
Best, Stephen
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Yup :-)

Very happy with my 15x70 Strathspeys (under a ton) and a mount from 43 South is
worth the waiting time, effort and money too, about £130 inc post IIRC. Individually
hand made to order (and to match your tripod head) from managed New Zealand
woodland, a beautiful parallelogram mount :

http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/43s_a...s/sbinomnt.htm

hth
--
Best Regards,
David Harris
Please remove NOSPAM & demunge address to reply :-
g8ina((at))NOSPAMblueyonder(dot)co(dot)uk

I'd be tempted to go with magnification around 10x. For me, the
pleasure in using binoculars is darting around and exploring the sky -
15x are very difficult to keep steady when handheld.

TopBanana wrote:
I'd be tempted to go with magnification around 10x.

Excellent for hand-held, I agree. I was out this am with my 10x42,
re-acquainting myself with the winter sky...

For me, the
pleasure in using binoculars is darting around and exploring the sky -

That is indeed a great pleasure, but is not the only one. Two of many
examples: The Orion Nebula or Double Cluster with 32x100 bins is a sight
you'll not get in 10x handhelds!

15x are very difficult to keep steady when handheld.

For quick views, they aren't too bad (at least the Helios and the
Kunming aren't). For extended/critical viewing you really want to mount
bins of any size.


Best,
Stephen

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