I wish I could use binoculars better. I have extremely shaky hands, so even low magnification is barely useable. I also have a couple diopters of astigmatism in both eyes, and in my limited experience eyepieces usually claim to be great with or without glasses but they’re usually not good with glasses.
I’ve thought about telescope eyepieces with astigmatism correction, which I’ve seen for sale, but haven’t seen binoculars this way. I’ve also seen stabilized binoculars, and I’m so impressed with my image stabilized digicam that I am hopeful, except for the astigmatism part.
Anybody know of binoculars with both features? Or some other way of improving the situation?
I have astigmatism and wear either spectacles or contacts. Ignoring the binoculars for a moment, IME over 20+years of use the correction quality of the contacts is significantly less than the spectacles. I use the contacts for convenience and vanity, but mostly vanity. The contacts are plenty good for ordinary day-to-day living, driving, etc. But when I really need to see, I switch to my specs.
Using binoculars the situation is reversed. The ability to get the eyepieces right up to your eyeballs without the big gap from spectacles makes the total effect of image size and clarity better w contacts than with specs. Not hugely so, but significant enough. When I really need to see something through my binocs, I switch to contacts. I’d probably not spend the money on special eye exams, and prescriptions, and the rather expensive lenses ($100/mo) just for binoc use, but given that I have the contacts anyhow for routine daily use, there’s no reason not to use them when binoculating.
As to shaky, the trick to effective binocular use is to stabilize them against a fixed object. A door or window frame, the trunk of a tree, the side of your car, whatever. Just push one point on the binoc’s body firmly against the fixed object, then pivot on that point as necessary to aim at your target. If you’re indoors looking out (my usual use case), you can even push the front of the binocs against the interior side of the window glass and pivot around that point as necessary to aim.
As usual, @LSLGuy has said what I was going to say, except better. I’ll just add that, WRT:
I wear glasses, but not contacts, and have a little astigmatism, and this is my experience, too. I take my glasses off to use the binoculars and can usually see pretty clearly once I’ve adjusted for the difference between my eyes.
I also second LSL’s ideas about stabilizing. And assuming your binocs have a mounting hole, a monopod can be helpful.
The monopod approach has worked for me for many years, both for binoculars and larger SLR cameras. I have several monopods that have a strap at the bottom that hangs from my neck. I can let the binoculars/camera hang by my side as I walk, but can then quickly swing it up to form a very stable three-point mount. This a huge benefit for longer camera exposure times, too.
Can I ask what you need the binoculars for? If you don’t need a lot of zoom, I wonder if it might be easier just to get a smartphone with telephoto lenses, or a real camera with similar setup, or a monocular with an attached external screen. That way focusing wouldn’t be as much of an issue.
Otherwise, seconding what others have said here. Contacts or corrective surgery would make using them quite a lot easier. I got Lasik a few years ago, and it’s generally been positive and life changing, but it’s not without side effects. These days I think SMILE lasers are safer (forget what it stands for) and there are also reversible operations like implantable contact lenses that surgically slide into your cornea but can be removed later if needed.
A week ago friends took me to a “Dark Sky” park at night to just look at the sky. We didn’t have any observing equipment, just chairs and blankets. It was really wonderful, and rekindled an old interest.
I got my degree physics and astronomy and worked a little in a couple different observatories, but then moved into other areas in industry. That was 43 years ago. Now I’m thinking about just enjoying some of the most pleasurable (but easy) things, such as relearning the sky, and indulging an old fascination with globular clusters.
So, I picture laying out under a dark sky with binoculars and looking for some of the most vivid Messier objects, basically.
I do also have a used 10" “Dobsonian” a friend recently gave me…
This is pretty interesting.
Last I heard, corrective surgery doesn’t work well for astronomical observing, because it introduces irregularities around the periphery of the pupil, so when your eyes get well dark adapted you start seeing various spiky smearing effects. But this is very old information and I don’t know if it’s still true. I might also be too old; some say 60 is kind of a soft upper age limit and I’m 67. But other sources say there’s no age limit.
Contacts might represent a better approach, and reversable and less costly too.
Oh, this might actually be a thing to worry about. I’d definitely check with an optometrist first
For myself, my vision after Lasik is significantly worse than it was with contacts. Halos were a huge problem for the first year or two. It’s better now but I still struggle in high-contrast darkness (like car headlights in the dark), and I have to read all text at like 125%+ size. Prior to Lasik, my corrected vision was better than 20/20 (but it was still overall worth it for me, because the improvement in convenience was worth the decrease in visual acuity for my particular lifestyle).
And both before & after Lasik, I always found long staring times inside an eyepiece uncomfortable. For school (botany classes with microscopes) I ended up getting a similar microscope imager, to view the image on my laptop, which was a MUCH nicer experience: 5MP Digital Microscope Imager | Celestron
Hence the suggestion to detach your scope (whether binoculars or telescope) from your display (phone/camera/laptop screen). No need to glue your eyes to the actual scope
I have an essential tremor, so for our Alaskan cruise a few months ago I got permission from the wife to buy some stabilization binoculars. I have astigmatism, but probably not as bad as the OP. I’ve also had cataract surgery with implants, and occasionally see “halos” in dark light. When using the binoculars, I remove my eyeglasses and have no real problems when viewing. I’m not reading eyecharts or anything critical, just scenery, and they work fine.
They were also useful when looking at the comet a few months ago; the stabilization kept the image still enough they I could look at different parts of the comet. They are Canon 8x20, good enough for scenery, but I can’t quite make out the moons of Jupiter; I would probably go up to the next size, such as 10x20.
The first number in binoc specs is the magnification; the second is the diameter of the primary lenses in mm. For astronomical observing, it’s better to go up in size of lenses (more light gathering) rather than magnification. So what you want is 8x50, not 10x20.
As I was researching which IS binoculars to buy, I felt really stymied by not being able to go to a store and hold them in my hands to see how they feel and how well they work. There are tons of great reviews of IS binoculars (those guys are picky!), but nothing replaces touching them.
One issue with bigger, heavier binoculars is the weight, making them tiring to use for any length of time. The reviews suggest that you would probably end up using a tripod anyway.
It seems like the most common size is 10x30 or 12x42. But did I mention that I had a wife who had to sign off first? I had to compromise on price and portability versus magnification and light gathering. One supposed benefit of the image stabilization is you can get the same apparent magnification of 10x using 8x (for example). I guess I could just set up my telescope again if I want to do some sky viewing, but it’s nice to have a grab-and-go pair of binoculars for convenience sake.
My Canon 12x36 IS glasses are a nice comfy size, IMO. Good balance between magnification and aperture. Not too heavy to hold for extended periods. Only complaint is that the soft-touch rubber turned completely to sticky goo after several years. I managed to remove it with isopropyl alcohol with a great deal of effort.
