Binoculars for astronomy

I’d love to sell everyone who already owns a binocular, astronomy binoculars, so they can do some astronomy. It would certainly get me a lot of astronomy binocular sales and make me look good, but it would also be dishonest, so not going to happen.

Truth is, anyone who already owns a binocular can get started, right now, in binocular astronomy. What you have in binoculars may or may not be the best choice for astronomy, but any binocular, even small compact binoculars, will show you more than no binocular under the night sky. If you decide you like astronomy, then it will be time to consider a binocular specifically for astronomy.

I started my astronomy observing, many, many years, ago, with my 10x40 birding binoculars and did quite well. If you already own 40mm or larger birding binoculars or hunting binoculars, it will take you quite some time to see all that can be seen in this size of binoculars, so get out there under the night sky and give it a try.

Still, the name of the game in binocular astronomy is seeing faint objects, so that usually translates into larger binoculars with larger objective lenses. How large? There’s no rule, here, but most of us die-hard binocular astronomers start at 50 mm and work our way up from there. The only fly in the ointment is that you will eventually reach a point in size where you will need to add an astronomy binocular tripod for the sake of steadiness and weight. Love those 25x100 astronomy binoculars, but without a tripod, they are little more than a door stop for someone like me.