I sometimes worry that with all my blogging and posting about high end,
expensive binoculars, that I am scaring some beginners who are on a budget. A great example is my beloved
Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe binocular. Rest assured, that you can do
binocular astronomy and do it quite well at one-tenth this price. I know, because I started and learned the basics of binocular astronomy with a
cheap binocular and I also test binoculars at all price ranges as part of my job. So you want to do some
astronomy and don't have a budget of $1000 or even $500? Try the
Nikon Action Extreme 10x50. I promise that it will show you all that can be done with a 10x50 and, yes, you can do a lot of astronomy with a 10x50. Want to try a giant binocular? For only a bit more, you can try the
Celestron Skymaster 20x80. Of course, you will also have to invest in a
tripod to hold it, but you are still not even close to $500. Get out there and observe.