Astronomy With Binoculars
by Kevin Brown : last updated: February 21, 2009It is easy to think that doing astronomy means you must have a telescope – and a fancy, computerised go-to version at that. But this is incorrect.
Excellent astronomy fun and discovery, can be had with nothing more than a pair of binoculars, plus a little knowledge and a good dollup of enthusiasm.
Binoculars have some great advantages over telescopes, when it comes to astronomical observation:-
1. Binoculars are totally portable.
You can pick up even a large pair of binoculars, without thinking about it. You can take them easily to anywhere you plan to observe from, be it a friend’s house, your astronomy society meeting, a nearby dark location or even a star party.
2. Binoculars require no set-up.
A telescope it will need to be moved, together with its tripod and associated add-on equipment, to the observing position. It will usually then need to be positioned on a level surface and North aligned. If the telescope has a computerised drive, you will have to make sure the batteries are charged and then go through the initiation and set-up, followed by “training” the telescope drive so it can track and find stellar objects. This can easily take 15-45 minutes.
3. You keep both eyes open when observing.
For some people, this is a huge advantage. I have met many people who find it very difficult to close one eye, while looking with great detail and concentration through the other eye. Binoculars give a far more relaxed experience.
4. It is easy to find objects in the sky, through binoculars.
Yes, this is partly because the magnification is lower than with a telescope, but nevertheless, most find it fairly intuitive to point the binoculars on the small area of sky they want to observe and actually find it in the field of view.
5. Binoculars are not expensive.
My pair of 7×50 binoculars cost only about $60 and they work really well. You can get better quality, of course, but even for a high amateur standard, $200 or the equivalent should be more than adequate.
You should be able to observe many very interesting Night Sky objects with a reasonable pair of binoculars. To help you, I very much recommend my friend Robin Scagell’s book, Stargazing with Binoculars. (see image on the right).
The Moon is always good to look at. Also the star constellations.
The great thing about binocular observing is that you can get a whole constellation in the field of view, in one go. This encourages a nice familiarity with the shapes, which will help you find your way about the sky. Star clusters like the Pleiades are also excellent to view. Plus, many double stars can be easily “split” with decent binoculars.
I hope this article has given you the sense that binoculars can be really enjoyable for astronomy. They can open up the Night Sky easily, for a very small investment.
[...] have written about the attractions of using binoculars for astronomy here Astronomy With Binoculars. And they are really good, particularly for beginners to the hobby, as it is so easy to get good [...]
[...] Supporting IYA2009 The International Year Of Astronomy With News And A Getting Started Guide For Beginners IYA News plus, Getting Started In Astronomy « Astronomy With Binoculars [...]