What kind/strength of binoculars are best for star gazing?
The headline specification for binos tends to be given as two figures in the form AxB where A is the magnification and B is the size of the objective lenses – this controls how much light they take in and therefore how dim an object you can see. If you are using binos hand held then generally I would advise against anything more powerful than 10x (and preferably a little less) since the image will become unusably jerky and paradoxically allow you to see less than a lower power pair. In terms of objective size, 50mm is usually about the limit that you can hand hold for long periods, especially if they are good quality. There are some cheap, lightweight mostly plastic binos out there but you want to avoid those at all costs. If you want larger than 50mm aperture or higher than 10x power you really need a bino mount, but beware – a good bino mount is comparable in price to a basic telescope and takes almost as long to set up. Ignore those brackets that fit on top a photo tripod – they are
