Beginner's Guide to Stargazing: How to Choose Your First Binoculars

As you gradually learn to identify constellations, you might feel it's time to acquire a telescope. Of course, like buying any piece of equipment, you can easily be overwhelmed by the dazzling array of products on the market. Moreover, for your first telescope, "the more expensive, the better" isn't necessarily entirely accurate.

Understanding different sizes and types of telescopes, accessories, and mounts, combined with your budget range and awareness of common pitfalls, will help you choose the most practical binoculars.

Binoculars offer a magnification and field of view that fall between astronomical telescopes and the unaided human eye. People often want to try binoculars with higher magnification, but it's important to note that the higher the magnification, the smaller the field of view. This means that at night, such a setup will make it difficult to aim at targets.

Generally, ideal binoculars for astronomical observation should have an aperture of 40-56 millimeters, a magnification of no more than 10x, and a field of view of 5° to 7°. Additionally, binoculars are characterized by being compact and lightweight, having sharp images, and featuring fully multi-coated optics (to increase light transmission).

Buyers should try to avoid purchasing zoom binoculars – these are rarely used for astronomical observation, and their optical system is inferior to fixed-magnification binoculars in the same price range.

It is also not recommended to buy binoculars labeled "wide-angle," as most of the area outside the center of the field of view will be out of focus due to inherent optical limitations.

Furthermore, when choosing binoculars, it's also necessary to check if they have a tripod adapter – a threaded hole located in front of the central hinge. When observing celestial objects with some larger aperture and heavier binoculars (for example, those with an aperture exceeding 56mm), holding them steady with your hands is clearly impractical, so a tripod is needed for stability.