Binocular Astronomy

Originally posted by zeeblebot
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

Thanks for all the info. I'm in Australia and nothing local on Craigslist. I have ordered mine anyway now from US, and the first thing I will be looking at is collimation. The info on collimation is helpful, as I haven't attempted it on binoculars. Its a common issue if there is an issue.

The zoom magnification is impressive but there is a light available limit (via size of the objective lens) to its effectiveness. With my 4 1/2" reflector telescope I can really ratch it up, but the image gets bigger without any sharper resolution. The fuzziness itself simply gets magnified.

I'll report back when I get them.

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

Solar filters are strongly ill-advised. If they crack, you are screwed. 😛

It is still best to project the sunlight onto a sheet of paper and observe the sunspots from there.