So I'm looking to spend no more than $125 for a pair of good binoculars. I've been doing a good amount of research since I've never owned a pair in my life. I'd be using them to stargaze as well as for plane spotting.

The pair that interests me is: http://www.intellireview.com/productDetail.php?prodid=1603740&category=d647

At first, I assumed that the more magnification the better. But then I read up here: http://www.chuckhawks.com/binocular%5Fbasics.htm
and I learned quite a bit about binoculars and how dividing the diameter of the front objective lens (in millimeters) by the magnification of the binocular gives the actual diameter of the exit pupil (7mm would be the best since that's the approximate human pupil size in excellent condition. Going by this, a 7x50mm binocular seems just fine (50/7=7.1mm diameter of the exit pupil).

However, the one I was looking at is 16x50mm. The magnification seems awesome but the exit pupil would only be about 3.1mm (which sounds like it would be no good for stargazing, being that there would be barely any light entering the lens).

I'm fairly new to this but I feel like everything I said makes sense.

Does anyone have any opinions on this?

Also, with higher magnifications, movement is also magnified so I'm also curious as to how steady of a hand would I need to actually enjoy using the binoculars.
They say 7x is used by the military because it's the easiest to handle while still having a good amount of magnification...

OK so! I've found a few more I'm interested in.

1:
http://www.binoculars.com/binoculars/astronomy-binoculars/celestronskymaster15x70centerfocus.cfm

2:
http://www.binoculars.com/binoculars/astronomy-binoculars/zhumell20x80supergiantastronomicalbinoculars.cfm

The first is 15x70mm. This one has 4.67mm exit pupil diameter which would definitely help. (they say 5mm is good)

The second is 20x80mm. This one has 4mm exit pupil diamter. This one includes a tripod (which would seem necessary to have any sort of stability b/c of the 20x, unless I were figure out a way to steady my arms).

They both have BaK4 prisms.
The first one only has multi-covered lenses while the second has fully multi-covered lenses.

They both seem to have some weak exit pupil diameter but they are both labeled to be ideal for astronomy viewing. Not sure what to think of this part.

If it weren't for the tiny exit pupil diameter of the second pair, I'd already have purchased them. I'm just concerned about the lack of light that would be going through the lens at night to stargaze. I've read that 5mm is good somewhere and this is quite lower.

Bump. Also, what kind of magnification would be necessary to see planets (like saturn) , given the right conditions?

Bushnell.

You better pay the price once and get the quality first than pay 150$ and have to buy a new one in a few years.

Why not just buy a telescope for star gazing?

Bushnell is bad



Yeah the fully multi-coated with BaK4 prisms are up there. Like 200+ The thing is, this is my first pair. Is it a mistake that I'm not sticking with a simpler pair like a 9x63mm for my first one?




And I'd like the portability way more with binoculars. plus the image is like 40% clearer cause you use both your eyes. I'm also thinking about starting up planespotting one day as well.

This post was edited by MachoMonkey89 on Sep 9 2011 08:44pm

If you get some good ones, you should be able to see comet elenin pretty soon!

Or a supernova right now in the Pinwheel Galaxy.

Keep in mind that it might actually be easier to see next week even though it's at its peak brightness right now. This is because the moon is rising early at the moment, and a week from now you'll be able to find the Pinwheel Galaxy before the moon rises. This leads to less light contamination for clearer images.

Oh great! You two seem to know what you are talking about. Do you have any recommendations on what I should check out?