What is the most powerful general purpose or astronomical binoculars I can hand-hold?
This will vary with each individual, and involves magnification and size (weight). But the first question is- daylight viewing or astronomy? For astronomy, the most magnification that can be reasonably hand-held is about 12x. Anything higher will be too “shaky” to get a clear view. For daylight viewing, higher magnifications can be hand-held, the shaking has less of an effect. The other factor is weight. General purpose or Astronomical binoculars over 4 pounds are going to be much more pleasurable to use mounted on a tripod. Therefore, our general recommendation for most powerful hand-holdable binocular for astronomy is an 11×70 (3 lbs.). For daylight viewing, it would be the 20x80LW (3.5 lbs.). But even though it is not very heavy, be aware that this is still a really large binocular- 13 inches long in fact. If that’s a little too much, go for the 15×70.
