Yay! I got my first binoculars!

[miracmert]

Hi guys! I'm so excited right now and since you are my only friends who are also interested in space, I wanted to share it with you right away!

I'm an chemical engineering student and I'm highly interested in space since my childhood, and one of my projects is to send a mini satellite to LEO which will be totally designed by other students of my university.

So let me tell the main part: I got my first binoculars for stargazing! I'm not a rich man and I can't afford a telescope yet but I saw a discount on a Chinese made binoculars and I bought it right away. It has 10x power and 50mm diameter. I was a little bit concerned if it was going to be a cheap-sheet but after I got it it's really worth of it's price. I've seen many other binoculars with same or even lower magnifying power and same diameter had prices like 3 or 4 times more than the one I got. Only handicap is its cover is plastic instead of metal.

And about my first lens-supported stargaze tonight, I was looking around the sky to get recognized with stars and their relative places I saw a very very bright star and wondered what it is. After having a bad neckache and good focusing, I saw that "bright star" is actually yellowish brown and it is round like a planet! So I ran to my pc to find a stargazing program to find out that "bright star" was Jupiter!

I'm really excited and happy for finally looking up closer and I hope I will save enough money to make myself a basic reflector telescope.

So what about your first experiences? Did you start right away with a telescope? Or you started with binoculars like I did? And how did feel? Let's talk!

Edited December 26, 2013 by miracmert

[sal_vager]

I started with just my eyes, but it is recommended in pretty much all the stargazing mags that you try binoculars before spending out on a scope, a 10x50 is a good choice, not overpowered and a readily available size

I have a set of 8x60's myself, they are far easier to carry than a scope, even with the camera tripod I use to keep them steady.

I wouldn't worry about the plastic, it's the lenses that matter, and even cheap binoculars come with decent glass these days.

[miracmert]

Exactly! I'm going to make a tripod for mine too because I know I'm going to use it so much that I'm afraid to get a cevical disk hernia

Also I realized that binoculars help seeing through the light pollution. I wish there was less light pollution so that everybody could see the beauty of the universe.

[Flymetothemun]

Exactly! I'm going to make a tripod for mine too because I know I'm going to use it so much that I'm afraid to get a cevical disk hernia

Also I realized that binoculars help seeing through the light pollution. I wish there was less light pollution so that everybody could see the beauty of the universe.

Me too, where I live the horizon glows at night and I can only see the really bright stars. If I ever get a pair of binos or even a telescope I really wanna go to Yosemite or some other secluded place and see the stars without light pollution blocking them.

[BlackBicycle]

About a couple of years ago I bought a chinese-made telescope for my son. It boasts a 1x288 power with the max attachments, but the attachments themselves are of such low quality (optics-wise), that I hardly use the rig above 1x50. The outer lens is about 6 cm (2+ inches) in diameter. Moon looks great through that, and I can see the phases of Venus and Jupiter. Other than that, the thing is... well... you know. Guess I'll be gazing at the Moon for a while : )

Don't buy chinese. Like, seriously, don't.

[UltraVires]

I have an old pair of Manon 8X30's my Great Uncle bought in Japan after WW2, they are not all that powerful, but I got to watch the Astronauts working on the Space Station the other day! Ok, so I saw a couple of small moving dots around the big dot of the ISS. The ISS is a good first target for your sky watching Miracmert, using my Bino's I can see some detail on it, the solar panels, and the big Zvesda module on the end. The same website that told you about Jupiter, should be able to tell you when the ISS is orbiting over where you live, and since Turkey is closer to the Equator, you should be able to see it better than me...

[BlackBicycle]

Hmm, observing the ISS never crossed my mind... It is hard to slew my telescope with precision while observing a fast-moving target, but I will definitely try checking out the ISS! Thanks for the idea, Ultra : )

BTW, just in case someone here doesn't know, there are great apps for mobile phones that show you the real time position of celestial bodies and man-made craft. Just point the thing at he sky, and you will have the fairly exact direction on where to look for a certain object.