![]() In general, it is difficult to carry any kind of handheld observations when the magnification is above 10x. When we talk about magnification, some people may think that greater the magnification = better the observations. More light = better astronomical observations. The objective lens diameter is the diameter of the front glass which has a direct impact on how much light is captured during the night. I had pointed above that I do not recommend any optical devices, from binoculars to monoculars and scopes with the objective lens diameter smaller than 42mm ![]() The objective lens diameter of monoculars used for stargazing As mentioned above, during the night your pupil opens up to 7mm, which means a lot of light is lost in the process.Īs given the above example, a 10×50 monoculars can perform well in stargazing, where the exit pupil is 5mm. I strongly recommend for night sky observations optical devices with an objective lens diameter greater than 42mm. The objective lens diameter is 25mm will underperform.For the best low light performances, the exit pupils of your monoculars (as binoculars as well) should be greater than your eyes pupils.Īs an instance, monoculars 10×25 are NOT recommended for stargazing because of two obvious reasons: In general, the human eye has the pupils open about 2-3mm in daylight conditions and up to 7mm during the night. To measure the exit pupils, divide the objective lens diameter to the magnification (e.g. The exit pupil is the beam of light passing through the ocular lens and goes into your eyes pupils. The exit pupils of monoculars used to stargaze Therefore, if you want to focus on buying a monocular within this range, make sure you look for something with good optics behind. Those optics behind are not recommended at all to carry on any astronomical observations.Īlthough we have here an exit pupil of 5mm which is not too bad in terms of astronomical observations, a 50mm objective lens diameter is good enough for this purpose. As an instance, I have seen monoculars 10×50 for $25 or about. In general, monoculars are cheap on price and their optics may be underperforming to binoculars but not always. Monoculars within this or approximate range would be just good but beware of the optics. Reflecting on the paragraph above, 10×50 binoculars are on the sweet spot to carry on handheld astronomical observations, to watch the moon, the Pleiades, to spot Andromeda galaxy and much more. Are monoculars good for stargazing? Using monoculars to watch the stars. Using a monocular to stargaze is not a big difference from using a binocular rather than you can observe through binoculars with both of your eyes, but in general, monoculars have the same or similar magnification ratio and objective lens diameter compared to regular binoculars.Īs an instance, let’s have a look at a 12×55 monocular, and although the magnification is 12x which is above the optimum performance to carry on observations handheld (still, you may be able to do it, if your hands are steady), a 55mm objective lens diameter is wide enough to do even some deep-sky observations. Another advantage of monoculars is their compact size, which is suitable for travel. But the question would be if the monoculars are good for stargazing.Īre monocular any good for stargazing? You can use monoculars to stargaze as long as the objective lens diameter is wide enough to capture a sufficient amount of light and the magnification is not too big for hand-held astronomical observations. The difference between a monocular and a telescope is that monoculars are made to be portable and for short-range observations. Monoculars are one of the most portable optical devices from the series monoculars, scopes, binoculars and telescopes.
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