is it a good idea to buy a pair of astronomy binoculars on ebay for < £50?
June 1, 2010 by
Filed under Zoom Binoculars
i want to get a 10×50 pair so i can just do a bit of amateur work on the sky, but i dont want to go outside of much more then £50, i know that wont get me anything close to a half decent telescope so a pair of binoculars is a better idea. only thing is, shops are selling those things for £100+
theres plenty of cheap binoculars on ebay, are they trustworthy for less then £50? what kind of spec am i looking for? any particular lense colours, prisms, zoom etc am i looking for gazing into the night sky rather then say bird spotting?
There are lots of binoculars on the market and a bewildering variety on ebay. I would suggest that you call a UK astronomy vendor such as orionoptics.co.uk and see what they have to offer. I don’t think you can buy binoculars on ebay wisely unless you have “gotten into it” for a while and know what brands you’re after.
Cheap binoculars have a variety of things that can go wrong. They might be very permeable to water, for example. Or the coatings may be bad and not let in much light, notwithstanding the size of the lenses. Big binoculars are very heavy. Another problem which may or may not bother you is false color. Cheapness also means that if you drop your binoculars they may lose collimation and never work right again. Poor quality can also lead to a lot of color aberration, on stars, or even in the daytime.
One brand that has a very good inexpensive model that I am very partial to is LEUPOLD. That said, my other pair is a very pricey SWAROVSKI. The LEUPOLD is a very lightweight nice optic and well regarded among hunters (one of the other markets for this stuff).
My personal preference when using binoculars for astronomy is to use very light ones so that my arms don’t fatigue. These tend to be smaller aperture. The comfort issue while using binoculars is non-trivial. A variety of solutions include various kinds of stands. Some stands like the Bogen tripods are not very helpful for observing high because you scrunch your neck trying to look high up.
Certainly 8 out of 10 times when the subject of “getting into” astronomy comes up people say try binoculars first. My experience is different. I find the physical discomfort of using binoculars very hard, and they are impossible to hold steady. So I think people are better off with an inexpensive wide field telescope.
The one telescope that I think is really superior to binoculars–a wide field very stable arrangement that is easy to assemble, transport, won’t break your neck, etc.–is the Orion Telescopes (U.S.) STAR BLAST. (Please note that there is a difference between Orion Telescopes in the U.S. and Orion Optics in the UK. ) The Star Blast offers a 4.5 inch mirror–equivalent to 113mm lenses on binoculars and a field of view in excess of 3 degrees. Like binoculars, it does not excel on planets, but unlike binoculars, you can increase the magnification and you will get to see the rings of Saturn and a few other nice things. For clusters like the Pleiades, and Messier objects like the nebula M17, it is excellent.
In any case I think you’ll do better having a chat either with a local astronomy club or Orion Optics rather than posting here; but I think I have given you a fair appraisal.
Hope that helps,
GN
10×50 is a good starting size for astronomy. Only eBay dealers with a good reputation should be considered. I know which they are.
I very recently got a fine pair not on eBay from binoculars.com as I am in the USA for 60 USD and they are really good! BARSKA 15×70 X-Trail but they have other sizes. If their quality control is not good, maybe I just got lucky! They far exceeded my expectations and I left a review of the highest rating.
I would be wary to buy from an individual who does not know which end of the binocular to look through. Old ones can have moisture and mold inside that permanently cloud the lenses. Or they may have been bumped hard and lost alignment between the two halves. Called Collimation. If that happens viewing through them will be uncomfortable with eyestrain and double images the result.
Get a new pair. You want Porro prisms for astronomy which look bulky compared to the roof type. Porro have a minimum of surfaces so will pass more light for fainter objects and have more contrast.
There are lots of binoculars availble in lots of places. If you want to learn about them go to cloudynights.com to the forums section and under binoculars you will find HUGE amounts of information on every imaginable subject from first pair suggestions to very advanced topics. I am in Iowa USA where there is frequently very high humidity. For astro binoculars I would not even consider anything less than a waterproof pair. When the dew starts falling in the late evening I have seen literally water running off of my telescope (I just bought new bins this winter so we’ll see how it goes for them). I wonder if this isn’t a good suggestion in the UK as well since I think it is pretty wet there a lot. The other side of the argument says ANYTHING is better than naked eye observing. But you might want to consider buying at least minimally decent quality especially concerning coatings, then when you buy keepers because of educating yourself, you will have maximized your money because you won’t have to throw the junk out and re-buy. Happy hunting!