Any good astonomy binoculars?

[bandit4910]

Well, I have been getting tired of just seeing planets with my naked eye, my parents won\'t get me a telescope...

They will however get me binoculars.

My limit is $70.

I want to see at least Titan.

[Monkthespy]

Binoculars I believe are a bit underpowered, you really do need a telescope.

[wired2thenet]

Decent article w/video on Stargazing with Binocs.

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/astronomy/astro21/sandt/binoculars.html

This article is most telling:

A much more difficult achievement is finding Titan, the lone binocular moon of Saturn. This 8th-magnitude speck only gets about as far from Saturn as 6th-magnitude Europa does from Jupiter. It needs large, high-power binoculars. Saturn\'s rings, unfortunately, cannot be seen very definitely with magnifications less than about 20x or 30x.

Sooooo, you\'re probably not going to be able to pay less than about $120US (unless you find an online deal) for a decent pair of astronomical binoculars.

That being said, I observed Titan WAAAAYYYY back in my teens with a cheapo store-bought refracting telescope about 20-25 years ago.

Incidentally, you can make you\'re own reflective telescope (a Dobsonian ... google it) for almost the same prices, provided you do your research and want to start an interesting hobby http://astroguyz.com/2007/12/27/making-a-newtonian-reflecting-telescope-for-less-than-50usd/

Or, if you want to armchair things and not spend a dime, check this article out : http://www.astrosaur.us/2012/05/01/amateur-astronomy-without-leaving-the-house/

Lots of options out there, and most are not prohibitively expensive.

With my cheapo refractor (parents probably paid less than $50 for it, I was able to map sunspots, the four largest moons of Jupiter (just like Galileo!), and map the 'illusion' of the changing inclination of Saturn\'s Rings, as well as the orbits or 2 or 3 of her moons. Also chronicled the phases of Venus, and managed to capture Mercury one time at crescent, just by accident. I think I even found Uranus, but as it was just a tiny speck, I can\'t be certain ... was in the right place at the right time, and most of the stars visible lined up correctly, but not all. Fun times back then.