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RE: (meteorobs) HAPPY NEW YEAR from Indonesia and a little question <doh!>...

Ferry,

    Happy New Year to you too!  It's been a good one so far.

    These are very good questions; it's great for amateur astronomers (like
me) to start with binoculars, and of course you want to pick a good pair.
Although just about any binoculars are better than none, here are some
helpful pieces of information.

     The first number is the magnification:  21 times larger than what you
can see with the naked eye.  You may think that more magnification is always
good, but there is more to consider.  The larger your piece of the sky is,
the less of it you can see at once.  This means that if you don't know your
way around the sky, it's going to be harder to find things.  I personally
recommend a magnification somewhere between 7 and 10 for starting out.
     The second number is the diameter of the objective lenses:  25
millimeters.  This is extremely important because the bigger your lens is,
the more light it gathers, which means a brigher picture.  A good ratio of
objective lens size to magnification (in my experience) is 5; for amateurs,
I recommend between 7x35 and 10x50.  I just got some Bushnell Powerview
10x50 binocs for Christmas, and I absolutely love them (I had no idea I
could see the four big moons of Jupiter at just 10x).

	There are a lot more details about binoculars that can be discussed, but
the two biggest ones are magnification and light-gathering ability.  You'll
want plenty of light for stargazing (although with a LM of -2, I think you'd
have to get out of the city to see anything at all).  Hopefully this little
discourse has helped; you can learn a lot more by reading various astronomy
sites on the web.

Clear skies all around,

Peter Brunone

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-meteorobs@atmob.org [mailto:owner-meteorobs@atmob.org]On Behalf
Of Ferry Octavian
Sent: Wednesday, January 01, 2003 8:57 PM
To: meteorobs@atmob.org
Subject: (meteorobs) HAPPY NEW YEAR from Indonesia and a little question
<doh!>...


Guys...
First Happy New Year to all of you
And may our 2003 be a very proporeous year and a rich clear-sky year to all
of us...
Anyway, just a couple of days ago, my friend just bought a small binocular -
kind that u can carry it very easily in your pocket, with a very-reasonable
price (just about US$15 in conversion from rupiah). I was very interested in
that and even tried to use it. It seems that it works very very well... (in
my point-of-view of course). The magnification is also very good. In all, I
think (in my amateur's way) itz worth to buy.
But questions arose...
1. The reading on that thing reads 21x25. What does it mean and is that a
good sign - suitable for Jakarta's sky with lm around -2?
2. How to spot a good binocular thatz suitable for amateurs - the very basic
and easy to spot factor that could be recognized in only couple of tries?
Thatz all guyz and thanks a lot...
Clear skies!
Best Regards,
FERRY OCTAVIAN
PT. Siemens Indonesia
IT Services - Call Desk and Data Center
Graha Mampang 5th Floor
Jl. Mampang Prapatan Raya 100
Jakarta 12760
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