Binoculars Rating

1. 

   Tina L
   September 8th, 2010 - 15:42

   these are a disaster on almost every point. too heavy, too much magnification, zoom is just plain bad.

   look for 7×50 or 10×50. any decent camera or sporting good store should be able to fix you up. buy and read a copy of gary seronik’s binocular book. it’s really cool.
2. 

   paulie2shoes
   September 8th, 2010 - 16:23

   Those binoculars are way too heavy. The largest I would recommend for handheld use is 10×50’s. I don’t own any Barsaka binoculars but I understand their quality varies considerably. You could get a good pair, or you could get a bad pair.

   If you want a great price on an excellent closeout pair of 10×50’s get these Orion Vista 10×50’s.

   You mentioned that you want to see stars and comets. Many times I prefer the view of a comet through either binoculars or a low power telescope because it give a wide enough field of view. You will see lots more stars through binoculars vs. naked eye. Also you will be able to se Jupiters 4 largest moons. You won’t be able to se Saturn’s Rings.

   http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=lastchancesale/~pcategory=lastchancesale/~product_id=09353
3. 

   suitti
   September 8th, 2010 - 17:18

   I would avoid zoom binoculars. I’ve been quite disappointed with them.

   I don’t expect 80 mm binoculars to support 125x magnification. They might, but i don’t expect it. 125×80 binoculars should behave something like a 4.5″ telescope – though with both eyes. The brain is pretty good at adding up the light from both eyes. You should be able to see planets except Pluto.

   25x binoculars can’t be hand held – you need a good sturdy tripod. Really, i can hand hold 8x tops. My bogen manfrotto photography tripod was about $250. I’ve seen good spotting scopes and binoculars on very cheap tripods. It’s quite unfortunate.

   My personal direction was very small binoculars – don’t laugh – they’re 8×21, and a substantial telescope – a 10 inch (254 mm). The 8×21 binoculars fit in my pocket and were about $50. The telescope can be had for $700, which includes computer locator. I’m not expecting to see much detail in 8×21 binoculars. I just want to find stuff. I’m not worried that the 10 inch scope takes too long to set up – it’s under 3 minutes.

   But another approach is to get some 10×50 binoculars at a local sporting goods store for $25. Save your receipt and promptly check for alignment. If they’re good, then treat them like fragile glass artwork – which is what they are, and they’ll last. You still need a tripod. There’s an observing chair that swivels and holds your binoculars that you can build in the $50 range, or buy for around $200. It folds for transport. They’re good to about 25x binoculars. Above that, your heartbeat jiggles the image.
4. 

   targetbutt
   September 8th, 2010 - 17:22

   Those binos are not handheld binos. You need to mount it on a tripod. I do own a barska spotting scope, they’re ok, not great, just ok. My beef with them is that they claim the scope was waterproof/fogproof and it isn’t.

   But I have to echo the other users, if you’re already set on spending the money, why not go buy a telescope? Or do you also want a bino that you can use for other stuff. In which case we go back to the fact that the Barska is not useable for anything else but being mounted on a tripod and stationary.

   Zoom in any type of optics means money. It costs a lot to build zoom lenses, therefore, cheap zoom lenses always sacrifice quality to make the cost. The glass in those binos must be of inferior quality. Not to mention the lenses are just Multi Coated instead of Fully Multi Coated. This is what you want specially for stargazing.

   For that price, have a look at the Nikon Monarch or the Carson XM HD. Spectacular binos, amazing resolution and clarity. Very pleasing on the eye. Some binos have poorly designed eyepiece, and when you look into it you feel like you’re straining looking through a tube. Some binos, like the Carson XM HD, has eyepieces that are well built. Look through it and the bino just disappears, you don’t feel any strain on your eyes, it’s like you’re looking at these two discs of images that is magnified. Unfortunately these things that matters, like lens and eyepiece quality, can’t be quantized, so there is no way to compare it online. But if you get the chance, walk in to a store and try those binos, then go to a big 5 or something and try out the barska, you will see the difference.
5. 

   joseFFF
   September 8th, 2010 - 17:43

   Any pair of binocs will work for you if you are just starting out. I started with a pair of 7×50 Meade binoc ($30) when I started back into stargazing as an adult and it was great and cheap way to learn the constellations and find some of the bigger objects like star clusters and asterisms. 7×50s offer a wider field of view so you can see more of the sky, whereas 10×50s give you better magnification.

   Stargazing with binocs is good because they are easy to point and carry around, BUT to see fainter objects you need to hold them very steady. The bigger the binoc the more steady they need to be. You can by an adapter for about $15-20 that will let you mount smaller binocs (70mm and smaller, usually) to a camera tripod which will make them steady and let you see fainter objects than when you hold them, but its hard to use this setup to look at things that are nearer the zenith (directly overhead). A great set-up is to use a parallelogram mount with the binocs and then you can really see more of the sky and they will hold larger binocs, but now you are talking about adding another $200-$300 to the price tag, which is moving you up to the very low end of starter telescopes.

   70mm binocs are about the largest you can hold steady enough to use for stargazing and will let you see the rings and moons of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter.

   My recommendation is to start small and cheap, learn the constellations and bigger brighter objects and then see where you want to go with your star gazing and whether a $500 good binoc set-up is better for you or if you would be better served with a $500 telescope. For me I started with binocs then moved to a 5″ telescope and now use a 8″ Celesctron Nexstar 8se GoTo Telescope, and trying to upgrade to a 10″ GoTo telescope.
6. 

   Charles
   September 8th, 2010 - 18:37

   You *will* get tired of 4.5 lbs binocs real fast.

   I own and use these:

   Meade Travel View 10×50 Binoculars – Full Size Porro Prism Binoculars B120103

   They are fairly light weight; you can use them on a tripod if you choose (I rarely do). These coupled with a 10″ dob make a wonderful pair of stargazing tools.

   HTH

   Charles
7. 

   Geoff G
   September 8th, 2010 - 19:30

   I wouldn’t recommend these binoculars for two reasons. First, they have zoom magnification, which simply doesn’t work well in binoculars. Stick with binoculars with a single magnification. Secondly, these binoculars are too large and heavy for the optimum use to which binoculars are put in astronomy. Certainly you can mount them on a tripod, but that defeats the real joy of binoculars: intuitive hand-held observing. I own 15×70 binoculars and have used everything up to 25×150 binoculars, but the binoculars I use 99.9% of the time are 10×50s. These are light weight, have good light grasp, and adequate magnification, along with a wide bright field of view. Mine are Celestron Pros, no longer manufactured, but Orion’s UltraView binoculars are very similar.

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