what can u see with 10×50 binocular in astronomy, or is a 80/400 scope better for astronomy?
May 24, 2010 by
Filed under Nikon Binoculars
i saw the moon with a friends 80/400 scope and was absolutely mesmerized. now i’m thinking of buying one for myself. i am on a low budget, want to use it to view the moon, planets and for terrestrial viewing. i want to go in for a refractor travelling type go scope. but when i researched over the internet, mostly everyone suggests to buy a 10×50 binocular. now as per my layman knowledge this binocular would not only have a magnification of just 10x but also the light gathering would be through two 50mm dia lens (i hope it’s called a lens), whereas the 80/400 scope has a minimum useful magnification of 16x (with 25mm eyepiece) and 44x (with 9mm eyepiece) and would gather light with 400mm dia lens. I am highly confused. am from mumbai, india and the price for both of the above is the same, binocular being nikon made.
for comparison could anybody also tell me what would be the difference in the detail of the moon as seen from both of the above
Let me help you out just a little bit with some very basics.
The higher your magnification the less light sensitivity there is. So the higher your magnification the bigger you want your lens to be. HOWEVER, it’s something of a ratio. Think of it like this. With the binoculars the ratio is 10 to 50. With the scope it’s 80 to 400. Slightly bigger lens but WAY more magnification actually equals a darker image.
The other thing to look at is that a tiny bit of vibration at 10x is way less noticeable than a tiny bit at 400x. If you live somewhere that has frequent breezes or if you don’t want to put out the money for a VERY sturdy and weighted tripod then you’re probably better off with the binoculars.
Here is a web site that can help you with some more suggestions and information that is a little less “demonstrative” than mine and a little more “by the numbers”
Ten tips for buying a telescope
http://blogs.discovery.com/whats_up_astronomy/2008/11/ten-tips-for-bu.html
And in fact, their number ten tip is this:
“As a wise step before buying a telescope, consider a good pair of binoculars first, such as 8×40 (meaning 8 power, 40mm lenses), 7×50, or 10×50 models. Binoculars can show craters on the Moon, the moons of Jupiter, and numerous star clusters and nebulas in the Milky Way. Learn the sky with binoculars first, then graduate to a telescope.”
The bins are ok for the moon but the scope will be better all round.
when i started astronomy i encontered such a problem binoculars or telescope?!if you have low budget i strongly recommend you not to buy cheap telescopes but buy an expensive and high quality binoculars.consider that you have no exprience in the sky and i afraid you might get confused of astronomy when you cant find your objects.again i recommend you to buy a binocular(you said nikon and it is a very good brand)and start reading astronomy read read and read and try to find objects with your bino 50mm is a good aparteur for astronomy i also have a 7×50 i started astronomy with it and i could see many messier objects and also the moons of jupiter!.you can see many features of the moon through binoculars.and know that with both eyes you can have more concentration on the objects you see this is what you cant gain through telescopes.
A 10×50 binocular and an 80mm f/5 telescope are two totally different instruments with totally different functions. The 10×50 binoculars are a low power wide field instrument for studying large swaths of sky: the Milky Way and large objects like the Pleiades and the Andromeda Galaxy. An 80mm telescope is for focusing in on smaller objects, like the Moon and planets. If I had to choose just one, it would probably be the 80mm telescope, though I’d probably choose one with a longer focal length, as 400mm focal length is rather restrictive.