re: #121 BigPapa

The big scopes these days don’t really use human eyeballs, but are constantly in use with various sensors and automated systems.

I used to stargaze with binocs. Even though I had an 8” Celestron it stayed in the box most of the time as it took so long to set up.

Stargazing with a good pair of binoculars is quite rewarding. The ideal pair is low power (say 8x) with large objectives (say 50mm). Binoculars may not sound like much, but just that extra bit of light collection (the human iris at max is around 10mm) means a lot. With 25x the light gathering (remember it’s the ratio of the area difference) the binocs can reveal thousands and thousands of more stars, and items such as the brighter clusters. Using both eyes help, too.