Re:The Dec 21, 2020 Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
by ljf on Saturday December 05, 2020 @03:37PM
(#25318088)
I am no expert, but when I got into star gazing I was desperate to get a 'good' telescope and ended up spending about £250 on a 'cheap' scope.
These have two main issues, one they are a pain to set up so that you can easily track with the rotation of the earth. 2 that when zoomed in close enough to see planets, they will cross your field of view so fast.
My brother lent me some nice 8x50 binoculars and I've got so much more use out of them, and so much easy to use.
So unless you are prepared to put some serious effort in, I'd grab some £50 binoculars (8 or 10x50 are best, don't get any higher magnification (the first number) or they are too hard to hold still, and do go muhh smaller in the lens size (second number) as you want to gather all that extra light for your eyes.
I wish I'd spent 200 quid in 2 pairs of good binoculars - but hey you live and learn!
These have two main issues, one they are a pain to set up so that you can easily track with the rotation of the earth. 2 that when zoomed in close enough to see planets, they will cross your field of view so fast.
My brother lent me some nice 8x50 binoculars and I've got so much more use out of them, and so much easy to use.
So unless you are prepared to put some serious effort in, I'd grab some £50 binoculars (8 or 10x50 are best, don't get any higher magnification (the first number) or they are too hard to hold still, and do go muhh smaller in the lens size (second number) as you want to gather all that extra light for your eyes.
I wish I'd spent 200 quid in 2 pairs of good binoculars - but hey you live and learn!