Tips on Binoculars

If you already have access to a pair of binoculars then any bins are useful for astronomy. Turn them on the moon and you will see so much more detail through binoculars. Other great objects to look at are: Orion Nebula, the Pleiades (a gorgeous star cluster), the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (A huge mass of stars that appear like a hazy ball in the sky and The Andromeda Galaxy. Finding the Andromeda Galaxy in the night sky is always a pleasure. Seeing this elongated cloud in the sky means you are looking out way beyond our own galaxy, 2.5 million light years across space at another galaxy.

I would say the advantages of binoculars are:

• they are cheaper than a telescope so a good starter option.

• they are extremely portable so if you are going somewhere that may have some great dark skies, just stuff them in a backpack and you are good to go

• they are easy to use with no real set up other than making sure they are focussed for your eyes.

Even astronomers with good telescopes still use binoculars because they are so good for star gazing.

If you want to buy a good pair of binoculars for astronomy, I am not going to give you any recommendations what to buy. There are a lot of good review sites that will walk you through the best binoculars on the market and they will do a better job than me.

The BBC Sky at Night have a good review page that includes some excellent information about what to look for in a good pair of budget binoculars with some recommended products.