Hi, this looks like another forum I will enjoy, already have with some great Mars pic links just posted by others. Greetings.

I have 4 1/2 reflectpr telescope I want to sell and get a pair of reasonably priced binoculars for astronomical viewing. Been looking up to 100x but quality would be suspect at the prices. Can get better optical quality if go lower mag, but not sure what is the lowest to go. 70x? Sort of a dance between price/optical quality/light gathering.

Any suggestions out of experience of same, or sites?

Thanks

My mate bought a pair of naff binoculars for £100 from a 2nd hand shop.

I told him they saw him coming. 😉

Originally posted by Taoman
Hi, this looks like another forum I will enjoy, already have with some great Mars pic links just posted by others. Greetings.

I have 4 1/2 reflectpr telescope I want to sell and get a pair of reasonably priced binoculars for astronomical viewing. Been looking up to 100x but quality would be suspect at the prices. Can get better optical quality if go lower ...[text shortened]... ical quality/light gathering.

Any suggestions out of experience of same, or sites?

Thanks

Originally posted by sonhouse
I haven't seen binoculars with 100 power rating, most 20 or 25 power. I have a 20X80 (20 power, 80 mm lens diameter) and they have solar filters to watch for sunspots. Of course now there are practically no sunspots to watch for so that was a bust🙂 With 20 power binoculars you can see pretty clearly the moons of Jupiter but you won't be able to make out th ...[text shortened]... d others at 1000 and 4500 bucks.

http://www.telescope.com/control/astronomical-binoculars

Originally posted by Taoman
Thanks sonhouse. I meant lens diameter, I should have used mm. or ?x100.

I've checked a few links including Celestron, in the past thought they were out of $ range, but under $300 sounds ok. I'll have another look.

I bought this:
http://www.opticsplanet.net/barska-x-trail-20x80-binoculars.html

The Celestrons appear to be having recent quality problems, mainly with collimation, according to a few reviews, by people who have used them in the past.

Thought Barska's may not be up to scratch but many reviews were quite positive about their quality, despite some small limitations. Good price, I''ll see how they are when I get them and fill you in if you are interested. Sometimes we think cheap price, cheap product, but not always. Time will tell.
Can't wait to use them. Been wanting some half decent binocs for a while.

Looks a good site for that sort of gear.

Cheers.

Originally posted by Taoman
I bought this:
http://www.opticsplanet.net/barska-x-trail-20x80-binoculars.html

The Celestrons appear to be having recent quality problems, mainly with collimation, according to a few reviews, by people who have used them in the past.

Thought Barska's may not be up to scratch but many reviews were quite positive about their quality, despite some small ...[text shortened]... some half decent binocs for a while.

Looks a good site for that sort of gear.

Cheers.

The equivalent Celestron was this one:
http://www.opticsplanet.net/ci-skymaster-20x80-gb.html

Originally posted by sonhouse
It's good it has a tripod mount on it. They are pretty hard to hold steady by hand. My pair does not have that feature, the solar filter job.

Update for those interested:
Found out shipping quite steep via OpticPlanet (US). Eventually found better deal with same price but about half the shipping costs at Overstock.com (US). Worth the online buy, especially with the $A up. The 20x80mm are still showing at $350>$400+ here! All in $A168. Hurry up Barska.

try craigslist, maybe people get tired of scopes and dump them at some point.

e.g.: ever been to a marina? how many empty slips are there?

e.g.: 70mm 20x-140x Spion military binocs, used price = $60, seller claims retail price is $200.

SF Bay Area, tho, no delivery, you have to pick up.

i wonder if they're really military, they have bright orange backplates (facing the eyes).

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/spo/2010893579.html

Military Zoom Binoculars - up to 140 times closer NEW! Only one factory in world possesses the technology to manufacture binoculars that can zoom up to 140 times closer, and we have it EXCLUSIVELY. Bring an object five miles away so close, you can almost touch it. .... With most binoculars, you can view objects seven times closer and 14 times brighter than with the unaided eye. Most amateur telescopes magnify 85 times. The Military Zoom magnifies between 20 and 140 times closer, and 70 times more light comes into its gigantic 70 mm lens. ...

caveat emptor, they are selling for $165 on a commercial site, where a reviewer says this:

http://www.epartyunlimited.com/strong-idea-military-zoom-binoculars.html

The quality of the binoculars is fine, and as long as only one eye at a time is used, it is OK, but when two eyes are used, there are two images, they do not overlay each other, just enough off that it is practically unuseable. As a monocular, it is OK.

here is an interesting page on how to collimate binoculars (maybe only the vendor's own models), but i wonder if the operators' own prescriptions have anything to do with the numerous reviews of binoculars complaining about double images?

if you collimated binocs for yourself would the next person to use them then see double images?

http://www.oberwerk.com/support/collimate.htm