When we think of astronomy, the first thought that comes to mind is a telescope, and preferably a big telescope! The question of whether binoculars can be used for astronomy never crosses our minds. In this article, we will take a look at what binoculars can do for astronomy.
Many people don’t own a telescope; however a lot more people own binoculars. It never crosses many people’s minds that they can point the binoculars up at the Moon or other objects in space and take a look at the splendor. Now a point I have to stress is that you must never point binoculars, whether astronomy binoculars or not up at the Sun. There is a big chance that it can damage your eyesight.
What have binoculars and telescopes got in common? They magnify objects or in a more simple term bring objects closer. This makes binoculars useful for astronomy. In fact many people who want to get into astronomy first go and buy a telescope. The truth is that thousands of telescopes are sold in toy stores, and these telescopes likely are less useful than same priced astronomy binoculars.
A pair of binoculars can make a great point in astronomy. Using binoculars as astronomy binoculars gives the added benefit that you get a much wider field of vision. More of the sky seems more apparent, and what’s more, you also get a certain level of depth. This is not what happens with buying telescopes.
In fact there are some astronomy enthusiasts that literally take 2 telescopes and make them into telescope binoculars! In effect this makes the telescope to have the same wide field of view and a sense of depth that binoculars give. However, you don’t have to go to such lengths to get the benefits of astronomy binoculars.
A point to consider with the astronomy binoculars is that small compact binoculars, the ones that many already own are not the best type of binoculars for astronomy use. However, they still can provide good views of the Moon; at least much better than simply looking with the naked eye.
Dedicated astronomy binoculars are bigger than most standard binoculars often found today. In fact they look like those traditional binoculars that are big, bulky and very heavy. As such they will need a tripod to be useful or it will be like doing weight lifting every time you try to look up into space!
As you get to those bigger sized astronomy binoculars, the price also goes up. A point then becomes whether it is worth buying astronomy binoculars or simply buying telescopes for astronomy use. My suggestion is to find a pair of binoculars with lenses above 60mm. This will generally have enough space for enough light to travel through, and give you good results.
Astronomy
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Astronomy