Home » Science & Nature » Astronomical Events » Starting off as an amateur? Think: binoculars

Starting off as an amateur? Think: binoculars

© Wesley Colley

Many people shy away from amateur astronomy for themselves or their kids because the cost of quality telescopes can be quite high. Typically, a full-up amateur system these days costs around $5000. That's a huge commitment, particularly for people who aren't completely sure how avid they'll be or how much time they'll have. Fortunately, there are appealing compromises that allow one to get his feet wet without the huge overhead.

A very attractive first step into amateur astronomy is simply to buy a nice pair of binoculars. Binoculars have the advantage that they're obviously useful outside of astronomy. If there's a birdwatcher, nature lover, sports fan (or even peeping tom!) in the family, the binoculars will get plenty of use.

If you live in an urban area with lots of light pollution, the reality is that you'll be using your binoculars mainly to look at the moon, the planets and a few star clusters. In that case, you really aren't so concerned with light-gathering ability and are probably more interested in power (magnification). In one sense, that's good, because power is cheaper than light gathering. The sense in which it's bad is what you already know--that you really won't see deep-sky objects very well. With 10x (10 power) binoculars, you can easily see the phases of Venus, craters on the moon, the disc and perhaps moons of Jupiter and probably the rings of Saturn. There's really no huge reason to go for anything fancy in this case. Just look for a good brand with glass lenses. A pair of 10x30 (10 power, 30 millimeter-diameter lenses) sports binocs will do just fine.

If you're fortunate enough to live away from the city a bit, a whole other range of objects opens up to you. In this case, it might pay to opt for some more serious binoculars. For deep-sky objects, you will be more interested in light gathering than magnification. While this is the more expensive choice, it will certainly be worth it, and you're still only looking at $75-$100 or so. You'll still be able to see lunar craters, phases of Venus and the discs of Jupiter and Saturn. You're more likely to see the faintish moons of Jupiter, so there's little trade-off there other than price. What you'll see that the city dwellers won't is globular clusters, nebulae and even a galaxy or two. Again, you should look for a good brand; make sure the lenses are glass and anti-reflection coated (almost all decent binoculars have AR coating). You'll want to get lower power but more lens diameter. A pair of 7x50 would be a first step.

The copyright of the article Starting off as an amateur? Think: binoculars in Astronomical Events is owned by . Permission to republish Starting off as an amateur? Think: binoculars in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.