Determining Brightness using the Magnitude System -
As a rough guide a decent 50mm pair of binoculars will take you from the naked eye limit of around mag. +6, to about mag. +10 (in suitable skies).
A six or eight inch reflector telescope will stretch this further to around mag. +14. "...Magnitude +1 stars are defined as being exactly 100 times brighter than magnitude +6 stars. At one extreme, the bright Sun is magnitude -27. At the other extreme, some of the faintest observed stars are about magnitude +24. The full moon is magnitude -12.5. Sirius, the brightest star in the nighttime sky, is magnitude -1.5, while the faintest stars visible to the naked eye under good conditions are about magnitude +6." (from Introduction to Visual Satellite Observing ) Satellites are about -0.2 to 11.8 in magnitude."all about Telescopes" by Sam Brown (Edmond Scientific) 1979 - Telescope Performance - Star Mag, Resolution, vs. Obj Dia. Table of image dia.
Binocular Performance-
chart showing Magnitude contours for binoculars with Image Stabilization & Giant Binos added. Is based on the Sky & Telescope "Visibility" factor of power * objective Dia. VIS is also included in the Holding Power Index table below. This may have been in the Backyard Astronomy column titled The Power of Binoculars By Alan M. MacRobert May 1995, p. 48 but I'm not sure because now you have to pay for back issue articles, no longer on line.30 Aug 2002 - the Binocular chart may not be correct, classical thinking, as in the "all about Telescopes" book, says that light gathering is dependent on the active area of the objective lens. For example that means you need to subtract the area of the secondary mirror in SCT scopes.
Here are some Visual Magnitude Calculations as a function of scope active area (# of eyes) and for the StellaCam EX.
I have made up an table of binoculars sorted by "Holding" which I define as the Power * Weight. The idea is that heavier is harder to hold and more power is harder to hold. The product is an index to how hard it is to hold. I have arbitrarily used a factor of 10 for image stabilization binoculars. It appears that all the Image Stablization binos are designed for daytime viewing, i.e. they all have exit pupil diameters of 3 mm. It seems strange that none of them have made an IS version that has a 7 mm exit pupil.
The column "VIS" is the S&T Visibility index and is just power x objective (7x50 binocs = 350 VIS).Holding Power Index - Table listing binos with calculated data
If the holding power is greater than about 700 then a tripod is required. For holding power between 350 and 700 you have difficult hand holding for a long time. Both of these are just my best guesses. A report says that the Leica 12x50BA (Holding Index =504) can be hand held, thus refining the dividing line.
12.5" Binocular Telescope -
7 by 35 by Keith Burnett
8" Bino Scope by James Lerch
American Association of Amateur Astronomers - bino based "First Light Introductory Astronomy Kit"
Astronomical League Binocular Messier Certificate - Messier List - Deep Sky List -
Astronomical Observing with Binoculars -
Astronomical Resources - Silicon Sky - Links -
Audio Output for Binocs - used for Earth bound sources of light
Binocular (and Naked Eye) Guide to the Stars -Binocular Menu - Richard Dibon-Smith -
Buying Binoculars for Astronomy - FAQ - The Astronomical Unit by Stephen Tonkin
BVD Better View Desired - birding bino info
Clear Skies,,,Two Eyes by Rob Castle - page is devoted to binocular astronomy
Cloudy Nights Telescope Reviews - Big Binocular Reviews - Big Binocular Observation Page -
Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars by Patrick Moore
Fred F. Feddeck's Bino page - log of observations
Giant Binoculars & Binocular Telescopes -
Head Mounted - new design
Interactive moon map -
Intercon-Spacetec - German dealer that carries very big Binocs - photo of man holding Fujinon 25x150ED
M18 Military IR binocs - See some stars but not all
Miyauchi 20x77 Exceed Binoculars - review by Chris Heapy
NGCView 6.0 - build and manage an observing list
Observing Double Stars -
Paul S. Walsh - Binocular reviews (scroll down)
Phil Harrington's Star Ware - Author of book "Star Ware 2nd edititon pg201 -205 on Binoc viewing with some info on the web -
Ratings by user votes -
Recreational Astronomer by Jon Stewart-Taylor
Resource for the Binocular Astronomer -
Sky & Telescope - binocular articles - Image Stablization Test Report -
Stars: A New Way to See Them - book
Todd Gross (weatherman) Binocular Evaluation - testing over 24 pairs of binoculars
Touring the Universe through Binoculars by Phil Harrington
Turn Left at Orion_ by Guy Consolmagno - book
Amateur Telescope Making (Practical Astronomy) - including Binocular mount plans
Anacortes ATWB- dealer in binoculars & scopes - with good product description data
Bino Mount - by Scott Wilson
Bino Mount w/encoders - Touring the Universe on Crutches - By Glen Warchol
Binocular Astronomy - by Ricky Spears Binocular highlights from Sky&Telescope (with permission)
Binocular Mounts by 43°S ASTRO - Portable and Large models for sale
Binocular mount for astronomy by Dr Euan G. Mason - wood
Binocular Observing Chair by the Houston Astronomical Society computer controlled chair for 2 people!
Building an aluminium binocular mount by Jan van Gastel
Getto Bino Mount by Jim Schneringer
Jan van Gastel's -Building an aluminium binoculair mount -
Light Speed Telescopes - Alt-AZ Mount 70 to 100 mm binoculars $825 (has encoders +$210 for 2,100-object computer)
Nisur Systems - mounts
Platter Master by Gary Wolanski, uses a microphone stand
Poor Man's Flexible Parallelogram Website -
S&T Test Report: In Search of a Good Binocular Mount -
Sky Rover StarChair - joystick control of chair & bino holder - Star Chair USA -
Sky Scanner Binocular Dob Mount - mirrors so binocs point down - user URL - Ian Teixeira of Ontario
Sky Window™ - uses a large single mirror
T&T Binocular Mounts - @S&T - made to order so customization is OK-18 Strong St. Ext., East Haven, CT 06512; phone: 203-469-2845 or 203-272-1915.
Universal Astronomics - UniMount - $180 to $420
Virgo Astronomics - High Quality, Professional Grade Binocular Holders and Mounting Systems
Adlerblicks @Carton Optics, 1037 Enderby Way, Sunnyvale, California 94087, Tel: (408) 245-4818Back to Brooke's Astronomy page, CCD astronomy page, home page
Binocular Smart - Eastern Block binos and night vision scopes -eBay Store -
Big Binoculars - imports Chinese 25/40x100mm 45-degree Astronomy Binoculars - a special parallelogram mount is in the works
Bruce Sayre - home built 12 1/2" Bino scope -
Bushnell - Bausch & Lomb/Jason -
Canon - 15 x 45 IS Binoculars - S&T road test - These Image Stabalization Binocs are gettng rave reviews
BUT others say the jump that occurs can be VERY distracting
Orion price $1399 (7/26/99) FOV 4.5 deg. $894.69 -Since I first published this web page Cannon has introduced new models. It interesting that they have increased the power, you can now get 18x50 IS binocs. This indicated that the quality of the stabilization must be good. These would give your a VIS # of 900 and my holding number is 2076 without the IS factor applied.Celestron -
Eagle Optics - dealer for Fujinon's new CD series -
Fujinon - Large-size Waterproof Super Power Binoculars -(973) 633-5600 is Fujinon in Wayne, NY
Orion has the 14x40 Stabi for $1099 (7/26/99) FOV = 4.0 deg.- Fuji page shows the 12X40
at Adorama Camera - at Ponoco West -
Dedal-Kalimex Czech Republic, - binoculars - telescopes -
Fraser Volpe Corp. - Stedi-Eye MK-X Stabilized 10X-14X Binocular -
LABT 100 - 4" Chinese copy of a Carl Zeiss Jena design
Lan Optics International - Russian - Giant Binoculars20x60, 30x90, 16x40 IS -
Large Binocular Telescope - ? X 8,400 binocs
Leica - binoculars & spotting scopes -
Litton Electro-Optical Systems - 20 X 120 Binocular, Mark III, Mod 5, (Big Eye) -
Leupold -
Meade -
Minolta -
Minox - Binoculars - spy camras
Miyauchi @True Technology Ltd @http://www.miller.at/auswahl.htm @ ATWB - $8,000+ @ christophers, ltd
Nikon -
Olympus -
Optolyth - german but at a good price @Deutsche Optik
Orion - I got the Orion 9x63 on sale - they are great
Pentax -
Pelengs - a Russian Image stabilization binocular with reportedly very good results
Pro-Optic = Vixen = Orion = Helios
SanJO Instruments - 6" & 10" objectives
Sherwoods - dealer in the UK - has the new Miyauchi 22x60 @ 699 pounds sterling
Sovietski CollectionS.W.F.A. - M24 Apache - US Army binocs
- 15 x 110 Border Guard Observation Binoculars SKU 203900
- 20 x 110 Battleship Binoculars w/mount -SKU 203902
- 16 x 50 Image Stablizaztion (no batteries required) SKU 203802
Steiner Germany -
Sunagor - Hi power & zoom
Swarovski Optik -
Swift Instruments, Inc. -
Takahashi Astronomer - 22x60 Fluorite @ATWB - Tod's review -
TeleHOON - Chinese
Tento (Russian) -
TL Systems, Astronomical Products - Binoviewer II for a telescope (not yet reviewed by Todd)
Unitron, Inc. - telescopes, microscopes, binoculars
University Optics, Inc. - CCD kit & other home brew supplies & good value 11X80 Binoculars
Vixen - not only binoculars, but also scopes & mounts, compass, pedometer
mount (Germal language) - also offered by Orion
Giant Binos & optional Stellar Guide (3860) & encoders (3830) for mount (under Telscope Accessories)
Zeiss - binoculars - 20x60 Stablized - better image stab. than the Canon 15x45
S&T list of Binocular Dealers -
