Can these be hand held for short periods of time (15-20 minutes) for casual astronomy. Is this a good canidate for ues in conjuction with a telescope.
596248
They're reasonably light weight, but I'm looking into getting a tripod to steady the binoculars. We use in conjunction with a table-top Celestron telescope.
596249
I would just hold it steady. For me, it works fine, and, I don't have no tripod! I got a lovely view of the Orion Nebula without that much shake. And, after viewing for a while, I would put it down and rest my arms. And for uses with telescopes, OH YES:D
596250
I bought this Celestron and found it to be very difficult to hand hold steady enough to see clearly. It was OK with a tripod, but the field of view was small and not very bright. I returned them and bought an Olympus Trooper at 10 x 50 magnification and it worked a whole lot better for hand held, and it was a lot brighter and more clear.
596251
I would say yes to your question. It is a great instrument that works very well.
596252
Yes, and yes. But, a good pair of 10x50 porros are hard to beat for convenience and all-around astro use. Good field of view and good magnification for most binocular objects. 8x40s are also quite useful. Young eyes might be up to using a good pair of 7x50 under fairly dark (rural) skies. That said, to take a quick handheld looksee at the Moon or Jupiter or Mars or the Orion Nebula or Comets or Hawks or Gulls this pair of 12x60 is awesome in my opinion. And that said, but if I only had one pair of binoculars I would probably opt for a good 8x40 (8x42/44) pair of water/fog proof porro prism bins. The Bushnell Legacy and the Pentax PCF WP come to mind. Or a good pair of 8x40 roof prism bins. I wouldn't bother with any porro that didn't at least have Phase Coating PC for Astro use.
1156501
It depends on what you are tracking. It's more than OK for visual observation of planetary and deep space objects (with PAE, a more delicate alignment of the object you're tracking). For astrophotography, I wouldn't run exposures of more than, say, 20 seconds with a properly balanced telescope or telephoto lens. You MUST take your time when aligning the mount, make sure the tripod is level; enter the time, date and coordinates with as much accuracy as possible; and make sure that during the alignment procedure you center the stars nicely in your field of view. It takes me about 5-10 minutes, but after that the mount will track very well. On the other hand, if you are using the mount from a fixed location; you can save that as a 'home' position and you are good to go.
1924096
Novice skywatcher here, but from what I've researched, it not that they're "better", it just more convenient. You can't see Mars or the rings of Saturn with these, but you can see details of the Moon as well as faint views of star clusters and glows of nebulas and galaxies that you'd never see with the naked eye. Skywatching isn't just about 500x magnification, its also about low magnification observations. So, the short answer is portability, quick setup and overall convenience. People say smaller scopes are used more then larger ones.
925016
It's a start...hopefully it will pique your interest in astronomy...it's a fair telescope. ..start out on low power in a very dark area till you get familiar with it...good luck!
43651
I can't speak to the economics of it; but I was looking at the full moon last week and it was beautiful. I could certainly see details of the lunar landscape and stars are also clearly visible. I'm sure a telescope is more suitable for long term viewing; but for a 30 second look at the night sky, these will do the task. I would not buy binoculars for this purpose alone. I use them regularly for watching birds and took them to Africa where they were terrific for game watching.
1468522
So I bought this for my kids too, but I would say that they have difficulty opporating the focus. The only thing this is powerful enough for is looking at the moon. I would recommend spending a bit more and getting one that can find celestial opjects for you.
383150
I use them for birding,but seems to be fine for astronomy, as you say they are light and feel stable in hand.
1706393
I cannot, but I can give you my perspective on the StarMax 90 mm by Orion. It is small, portable, and clear, but I wear glasses, and it is hard to see through with the 10x eyepiece. I think all of the small scopes will be. I wish I had spent the extra $100 and bought the 6" Dobsonian mounted reflector, but I wanted to use this during the day for spotting animals from a distance. I gave this as a present to my wife who hasn't worked with the telescope yet, and she may have different opinions. I did get her the camera mount, polar lens, and an extra eye piece that doubles the magnification. I think that you'll find that both are probably one in the same IMO. I do like the table top mount that the Orion has. I think once the weather warms we will be able to give a more thorough opinion. I think I will end up getting the reflector with the Dobsonian mount the color CCD eyepiece from Orion, and a few extras. If you have room I'd suggest the 6" reflector, or this http://www.telescope.com/Orion-XT45-Dobsonian-Telescope-amp-Beginner-Barlow-Kit/p/102027.uts . I feel that we may outgrow the Starmax 90, but I think the 4.5 or 6 with Dobsonian would well used for the lifetime of star gazing.
2078405
I think so. I bought it for my husband. He's a novice astronomer and he loves it. :-)
758854
I have not used it form that, as I LOOK AT THE STARSat night when it is clear. I would think you would haveto hold them steady but it could be done,
571672
The telescope can be slewed manually by simply moving it with your hand. Its not really locked into place or anything like that. Althought It does make things a bit more difficult XP
500160
yes if you want to tinker. If you want to be serious then buy a real quality mount, the mount of this telescope is crap.
1080258
We have used it on occasion, hooked up to a laptop. Took a bit of time to locate object and focus on telescope and then put in the eye piece. Worked ok, but not something I would use all the time.
2105523
No, it cannot. I also recommend a power tank for it. It takes 8 AA's but they don't last long. A power tank will keep you running all night. Hope this helps you on your telescope buying decision.
622876
If viewing relatively fixed objects at long distances is all you want to do, a telescope would be better. For general use and very basic star gazing, these would be fine.
1554883
Sorry Kevin, i am the wrong person. i bought this telescope for my son and he couldn't use it and i am stock now. I bought it cuz i thought it would be just easy. but i was wrong.
730729
Yes and no. It depends on what you want to do. This is a great starter scope. If your ideal night is looking out and seeing nothing more than planetary objects, then this will be the scope for you. If you have no experience with other telescopes, and this'll be the scope for you. I enjoyed this telescope however there are two big drawbacks. One is the telescope will only hold a 1.25 inch eyepiece. Once again this is ideal if you're just looking at planetary objects, however larger objects like Andromeda will require at least a 25mm to 35 mm eyepiece. The other drawback is the tripod, unfortunately it's very shaky despite what you do. When trying to look at things through the eyepiece a simple bump or even a little wind will knock it around, this is something that you would adjust to overtime. The upside are that it is very portable, Gives you a fundamental idea of how to use a telescope if you have no idea, and it has good imaging. I would highly recommend investing into new pieces as the two that come with it are very poor. Remember, your telescope is only as good as your eyepieces. If you are newer to telescopes then I would suggest this one, it's a cheap way to get an idea of what you're doing and will give let you know if you want to invest more into this fairly pricey hobby.