Abstract
It’s commonly recommended that before someone buys a telescope they should first get a good pair of binoculars. And with good reason! Not only are they much less expensive, and also are ultra-portable and always ready for immediate use, but they can provide views of the heavens unmatched by any telescope! This results primarily from their wonderfully wide fields of view—typically 5° or 6° (10- to 12 full-Moon diameters!) of sky in extent compared to the 1° fields of most telescopes even used at their lowest magnifications. There are also ultra-wide-field models that take in a staggering 10° of sky. Binoculars are ideal for learning your way around the heavens and for exploring what lurks beyond the naked-eye star patterns.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mullaney, J. (2014). Binocular Basics. In: A Buyer's and User's Guide to Astronomical Telescopes and Binoculars. The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8733-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8733-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-8732-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-8733-3
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)