Binocular Stargazing 101: Essential Tips - with Celestron SkyMaster Pro ED

I laid on my back the other night . I scanned through the sky and I looked at , you know , patches of stars . I found some satellites that I was able to actually track , along with with the binoculars , which is awesome . So the first thing you need to think about when you're outside under the sky is what is it that you're wanting to look for ? Now ?

The obvious thing in the sky , of course , right now is the moon . Right , I thought it would be important to discuss how the different sizes of binocular are going to give you different views . I'm not going to be very quantitative about it . I'm going to be very qualitative .

I'm going to describe things how they look to me and it's my opinions about things , not necessarily any kind of hard facts here , um , but I've been doing this a very long time and I have a good understanding of what looks good , so I'll do my best to try to give you a sense of scale as well as detail . So the first ones are the seven by fifties .

Now , the first thing to do , of course , is to get it in focus , but that's easier said than done , right ? So , holding my hand over the one for my left eye , I can get that in focus , and then I'm going to hold my hand over my left binocular and I can change the diopter . Oh , that's smooth . So they have this thing right here .

Okay , you'll notice that that is the dial for the diopter , and it makes it so that this is super tactile when you're out here , that you can look at this dial and try to figure it out under , you know , dark skies with a normal binocular , or you can just feel it with this one . So I really like that . Also , don't forget that these cups do come out .

And because those cups come out and this is the same on all three of these Skymaster Pro ED binoculars First thing , once again , is to focus your left eye using the big dial , and then there's the diopter , and that diopter helps you to get the other eye in focus , because your prescriptions are not identical and , by the way , if you wear glasses like I do .

You do not need to wear them with your binocular , unless you have an astigmatism . Okay , and if you have an astigmatism , I recommend using the glasses , and these work fine . I prefer them because I do have an astigmatism . For me , I can look through my glasses in here .

I can basically dial the cups down and they do stop at different levels , and so I can get the exact level that works best for me . And once I've got that in the binocular , unless somebody else uses it , it'll just stay there . It's rock solid . I really like it . They're really nice in the hands .

For the ones that are the 7x50s , another thing I want to remind you about is why you're , you know , tending to hold it here , because that's where the grips are .

Naturally , I prefer to hold the binoculars out a little bit farther and rest them on the bridge of my nose , because it stabilizes them quite a bit more and you can bring your arms in and towards your chest and even hold your breath if you want to stabilize yourself a little more . But that's about the extent of it .

At that point , you know , with the 7x50s I'm having to do that , or the 15x70s or the 20x80s . The magnification on these is so great you absolutely want to have them on a tripod .

In looking through these , the 15x70s are very interesting because from the 7x50s to the 15x70s , that extra boost in magnification allows me to see the details on the moon significantly better .

Now the drawback of having to have a tripod actually turns out to be a really nice feature , because when you're looking at the moon here , any little shakes with this you are going to see , and so I had been holding on to the tripod while I was trying to use it . Bad idea , okay , hands off . After you get it in focus , don't touch it .

Try to stay just enough off of

it . The other thing I had noticed that I was kind of surprised by is how the moon in a binocular because it's a binocular is not upside down inverted like you would see in a telescope , and so from someone who is coming from more of a telescope background , I'm used to having to explain about how the moon is flipped upside down so I can see how .

For someone who is just getting started in astronomy , that can be very difficult . By having the binocular as your main observing tool for the moon , you're actually getting a good amount of detail . The brightness levels are the main thing that I see when I go over here to the 20 by 80s .

Okay , so the level of the light that's coming into this one is enough that you're getting this contrastiness that you don't get with the other one .

So one of the other things that I really like about the tripods is that they have , like many tripods do , the ability to hang some things off of them , and that gives them the added stability that you would desire when you have something like a big pair of binoculars at the very top of them .

For now I am just kind of hanging the 7x50s off of this in the bag and I'm also hanging off of this one , the Ultima 80 , which is a daytime spotting scope that you would use for birding or something .

So I've got the 20x80 here and I've got the 15 by 70 over here , and now we're looking at the part of the sky that is opposite of the moon , and so we can see there's a difference . But unfortunately , at the farm , this is in the direction of the most city lights . So I do have a dome at , if you can see it there , probably a dome of city lights .

From my local town , this direction tends to be the most clear , and that's where the moon is right now . Looking up here , I can find some pretty bright stars and you know , you might want to use this to look at the different colors of the different stars . There are star clusters , such as globular clusters , that you might want to look at .

There are open clusters of stars that you might want to look at . The stellar objects are usually pretty easily seen in binoculars because they're pinpoints of light . Some nebulae are visible , but it becomes more difficult because the actual photons are spread out as opposed to being like a star is where they're all concentrated .

So be careful when you're looking at the magnitude scale of nebulae . And the same thing can go for galaxies . Some of them are visible in the binocular . They're sufficiently bright . Their surface brightness across the entire galaxy is very large , but there are many of them that you won't see With either of these .

I don't actually like to look for these objects with these types of binoculars right away . Here's where having the different ones is kind of like when you have different eyepieces .

I actually don't like just starting with either of these two pairs of binoculars I think a combination of the 7x50s to you know , initially scan through the sky and you'll have that wider field of view . And if you find something that you notice you're interested in , that's when you can jump up here to the 15x70 or the 20x80 to look more closely .

But the scanning of the sky itself , these 7x50s are my favorite . I laid on my back the other night I scanned through the sky and I looked at , you know , patches of stars . I found some satellites that I was able to actually track along with with the binoculars , which is awesome .

You're not gonna see detail on those objects , but the International Space Station you might have a chance . The smaller satellites not so much . I am looking at Antares right now with the 7x50s and the color of this star , this orangish color , is so , so different from all of the other stars that are around it .

The temperature of the star is why it's the different colors . So that's actually indicating that Antares is cooler than the surrounding , more blue colored stars or white colored stars . The other one that is out right now is actually right up above me there in that direction , and that is the Big Dip , asterism , and it goes the arc to arcturus .

And if I'm looking at that one and I'm getting that very different hue , a different color that you would have seen , compared to the other stars in the sky , very distinct . I can also pinpoint some doubles . So some doubles to look at would be like Mizar and Alcor in the handle of the Big Dipper .

It's kind of cool you can split the Mizar and Alcor in the handle of the Big Dipper . It's kind of cool , you can split the Mizar and Alcor with your eyes , but here in the binoculars it's just so much better .

It's such a great little double and you'll notice that when , upon zooming in , that it's actually not just one set of stars , just one set of stars , it's two sets of stars or four total , two binary systems sitting right next to one another .

In fact , I believe one of those is a spectroscopic binary , where one of those stars is not visibly able to be seen as different , but through spectroscopy we can detect that there is a second star that's orbiting very , very closely to the other one . So that's spectroscopy .

We can detect that there is a second star that's orbiting very , very closely to the other one . So that's spectroscopic binary , not visible even through telescopes . I like both of them All . Right , that's definitely the case . In fact I like all three of them , it's just that they have different uses . So what else could we be using these for ?

Well , tonight we've got the moon shining very bright , and so I'm finding it difficult to look at anything else , even through the telescope . It is kind of a problem to have the moon in the sky like this .

So what I'm planning to do is going to bed and then later on tonight getting up once the moon has set , and that way I can observe when it's darker outside , because not of the actual amount of sunlight , but it's the moonlight that we're contesting with , so I'm gonna wait a few hours . It moves approximately one width of your fist every hour .

It's about 13 degrees . Your fist is approximately 10 . So here we go . We've got one hour , two hours , three hours , and it's going to be over there in the woods . Another half an hour or so it'll be below the horizon and our skies are going to get significantly

darker . Now , if you're dealing with light , polluted skies , do your best to get portable , and what better way to do that than using binoculars ? Right , so I can throw this back into my car . In fact , both of these tripods also come with cases . Each of these , they come with their own case , so we've got the one here for the small 7x50s .

The binoculars fit right in and this makes for a really nice portable way . You've got this and your , and this makes for a really nice portable way . You've got this and your tripod . If you've got one of the bigger ones , and the bags are super durable Keeps everything in place .

Don't forget , if you're getting the 7x50s or the 15x70s , that you're going to need to get the tripod adapter , whereas the 20x80 comes with the tripod adapter built into it , so you don't need it for that one . But that's such a great way to get portable and get out to those clear dark skies . Thanks a lot and keep looking up .