Almost as soon as the telescope was invented, there was an idea that additional comfort and usefulness might be gained by twining the instrument for use by both eyes. I seem to dimly recall that even Galileo suggested shipboard binocular observations in his search for tools of navigation; although his proposal for the anxious observer to observe whilst swinging wildly from a bosun’s chair was a mite ill-conceived!
7×50mm or 10×50mm binoculars are correctly purported to be a good specification for general low-power/ wide-field astronomy. But astronomy is also about leaching as much light from the sky as possible. The 70mm aperture of these binoculars has twice the light-gathering power of those using 50mm. Designed with both terrestrial and astronomical observations in mind, BaK-4 prisms and lens coatings ensure as much light as possible (85 percent) gets through to the observer. The comfortably over-sized eyepiece elements provide a generous eye relief of 20mm too. Coming in two models, the 10.5 times offers a wider field, whereas the 15 times provides a slightly darker one.
Price: £199 (both 10.5x and 15x)
For more information: www.opticalvision.co.uk
