Astronomy and the Binoculars

I have to say that for years I have had an interest in astronomy. Unfortunately, it stayed mostly just an interest. I had purchased a low-end telescope once, and while I was living in North Carolina, it seemed to work pretty good. But unfortunately, I do not think it survived the trip back from North Carolina to New Jersey.


So, finally, I have purchased (as a result of a Christmas gift from my wife's grandmother) a decent pair of binoculars. They are Orion Ultraview Long Eye Relief Binoculars. I purchased the 10X50s - you can see them at this link: http://www.telescope.com/jump.jsp?itemID=318&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C5%2C37&KickerID=451&KICKER

It has been rougly 5 days since I have received my binoculars. I purchased along with the binoculars - solar filters - so that I could observer our closest star - and extend the usefulness of my binoculars.

It just so happens that in the 5 days I have owned binoculars - I have not seen the sun. A rumor perhaps that there is a sun, but mostly only clouds. It is of course, even worse at night. Yesterday night I lucked out and there were large gaps in the clouds over New Jersey and I was able to get some observing done.

The binoculars, I suspect are great. The eye relief is necessary, since both my wife and I wear glasses. I even have the tripod adapter and a tripod.

There were some unfortunate items with my observation time; however, nothing to do with the binoculars themselves.

Well, I am a computer programmer, as previously mentioned, and though the binoculars are fairly light, I had trouble keeping them steady. So, for a while until I got used to it - it was more like I can see that bright streak of light in and around Orion and Taurus. I steadied up, but the next day (which is actually today) i had some amount of neck pain. And I can say, that even such a sedate hobby as binocular astronomy, you need to have some fairly well developed shoulder muscles.

Using my tripod was not the solution. Granted, the first question should be asked - is the tripod designed for what I was doing with it - and the answer is no. It is just a cheapie $35 camera tripod. Any of you other geniuses (like me) need to be aware that a typical cheap camera tripod, just isn't going to cut it.

There was no problem (due to using an adapter) in attaching the binoculars to the tripod. The major problem is that the camera tripod, just does not hold the binoculars high enough for observing things that are even close to straight up. So, evenutally, I shortened the tripod and put it on a table - and that seemed to work. I got to get a good look at the Pleiades - and there is definitely a blob straight to the right of them that looks like it could be a globular cluster/galaxy. But in the end I am not sure what it was, because light pollution made it impossible to get individual stars out of the large brigher than sky blob to the right of the Pleiades.

Anyway, hopefully I will have these binoculars in working condition for a long time - and will get many observations out of them.

At present - I paid $328 (binoculars, adapter, solar filters, shipping) and have had 1 observation. So, that observation cost $328. Now, if over time I use the binoculars a whole lot - it would be nice to really get my money's worth on a purchase and get the cost per use down below $1. Right now, it just feels like the sun and stars are hiding from me on purpose. Those rotten spheres of hydrogen!!!

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