Yep, you gotta get far away from cities, towns, & civilization these days to see more than a few dozen stars. In my dimmer area of the city, I'm lucky to see much more than a dozen stars on a clear night. As a kid in the city, I'd see hundreds, & in the country just 40 miles west, thousands. Now the skies in that spot in the country are overwashed with the orange/pink glows of the town lights 10 miles away.
The only place I've seen skies as dark & full of stars like when I was a kid, is halfway across the state & way down by the NY/Penn border. It's in the middle of the wilderness many miles from even very tiny towns.
I find a simple set of $40-$50 7x50 binoculars brighten up & sharpen the stars enough in the city to be almost like the sky was years ago... although through binoculars, it's only a narrow view at a time. I don't recommend above 10x (like 10x50) or higher powers for simple hand-held binocular astronomy. Your hand can't keep the the view steady enough to enjoy casual stargazing at higher powers. Bigger heavier ones also are difficult to hold up for a long time. In binocular astronomy it's not about higher power, but boosting the light, sharpening the images, & bringing out more colors. Unlike telescopes, you have 2 image sensors (your eyes) to resolve the images, & twice the processing power (your brain is used to processing both eyes), so it gives you more a view & feeling like you're almost like out there.
Most lower power binoculars, esp. 7x50 & 10x50 offer a wide field of view, so you're seeing a larger portion of the sky through them. They also offer what called a longer "exit pupil". That's the distance you can hold them away from your eyes & still get a full view. If you're a glasses wearer you'll want a long "exit pupil" so you can still see through them well while wearing glasses. However, if your eyes aren't too bad, binoculars have enough focus range, to adjust the focus to compensate for your eyes without the glasses, but when you hand them to someone else to view, they'll have to re-focus them for their eyes. But it only takes a couple seconds.
If you have a very steady hand, & learn some tricks to prop yourself or the binoculars against to keep the view steady & not jitter, you may be able to get away with 10x50 binoculars. But 7x50 is best for just scanning stars & enjoying the colors. Stars all different colors & shades through binoculars. Anything less than 7x50 will be disappointing though, esp. near towns & cities. Even something easily viewed with the naked eye, the Pleiades, look totally dazzling through simple binoculars.
If you don't mind spending more they make some nice 20x70 & 20x80 giant binoculars that are fantastic for stargazing, with a marvolous view. You can even see some nebulae, galaxies, & star clusters with them. They can be found on sale for under $200 sometimes. But you will need a tripod to use them. Don't expect spectacular big views of the moon, Jupiter or Saturn though. They're best for stars. Avoid binoculars with zoom features, they tend to distort or blur the image for astronomy use.
People often ask what is the best scope to get. Your best one will be the one you use the most. A giant monster you had to save up for, that's too bulky to lug around much, takes too long to set up won't be your best if you hardly use it, or had to live without it long until you saved up enough for it. 7x50 binoculars can be kept in your glove compartment, backpack, side pack, briefcase, or tool box. Even those 20x70 & 20x80 binoculars, with a cheap collapsible $18 camera tripod can fit in a backpack with plenty of room to spare. Anyone can easily carry 20x80 binoculars mounted on a tripod with 1 hand.
You can see of the map of the world's lights at night below why all the stars & the milky way are missing.
Topic: Pluto, space, & beyond. (Read 46575 times)
