Finding The Best Tripods and Mounts For Your Binoculars

by Derek Robinson

Many mounts are available for all your birdwatching and astronomy needs, and options vary widely to accommodate the particular optical device you use. Inevitably, selecting the right mount or tripod means finding a compromise between weight, size, and stability. While stronger, heavier mounts will obviously provide more strength for larger sets, some trades are made in terms of convenience and portability.

Bushnell offers a number of binocular accessories including tripods which come in a wide range of price points and specialties. While some are meant to be mounted on a table, others are best placed on the ground. There are even car window mounts for when you don't want to leave the vehicle. Their table top tripod is only 9 inches tall, with a weight of only 1 lb, and a price less then $20. This could be an excellent Christmas gift for that friend who has everything, and can easily be placed on a patio table or picnic table for convenient, portable outside use.

Field tripods are larger, and while you want to keep them reasonable for carrying, they also tend to offer a little more strength for larger spotting scopes and binoculars. For example, Bushnell binoculars field tripods offers a maximum height of only 3 feet, although it has three leg sections so you can adjust it to the height you need up to those 3 feet. It still weights in at only 1 lb, and is a birdwatcher's favorite for portability and strength. At less than $60 it is also another great option for Christmas gift-giving.

Apart from size, smooth operating tripod heads are a necessity for birdwatching. You just don't want to be fighting to turn the head around the right way when that rare bird appears, so it's important to have a reliable head that will move smoothly. It will also be worth it to spend some time working with the head in advance to determine it's range of movement and how best to manipulate it while keeping it in control. That way you won't be wildly whipping it around to catch that endangered raptor, hoping to get it set up properly before it's too late.

If you use more than one set of binoculars or other optical devices, there are mount adapters available that allow you to use any set of binoculars of any brand on your existing mount. In using one, you can quickly and easily set your binoculars on a tripod even when you usually use them in-hand. If you have giant lenses this would be particularly useful when you want to survey a large area while birdwatching over extended periods. It could also be useful for hunters who want to set up camp and watch moving herds at dusk, and those who may use their existing night vision binoculars for surveillance during neighborhood watch.

Some mounts for astronomical purpose add even more exciting features. While these can improve your experience considerably, naturally they add weight and size and may only be reasonable when you plan to set up a scope that can be left in place. These mounts are usually bigger and heavier, and may be used on your patio or even if you just plan to set them up in one spot and leave them there for the night. For example, Oberwerk binoculars offer a mirror mount for giant binoculars used to stargaze. This sets up more like a microscope, as you mount the binoculars so they point at the mirror. The night sky is reflected in the mirror then up through the binoculars. Ultimately you end up looking down diagonally, rather than up through the binoculars. For some this angle is much more comfortable, particularly with telescope binoculars or giant binoculars. These larger optical devices can be uncomfortable to use when pointed diagonally up rather than down. When you're using them for long periods of time, the right mounting device certainly enhance your comfort.

That said, you will want to be careful handling such mounts, not only because they are heavy, but because the added glass can be fragile. You wouldn't want to drop one of these mounts once you have invested in one. With a price range of about $170-220, this can be a great option, provided you have a deck or other permanent mounting area.

While choosing mounts takes a little extra time, and certainly incurs some added investment, it can be a big difference towards enjoying birdwatching or stargazing. Nobody wants to end up with a neck or arm ache from holding optical devices up, nor from struggling to keep binoculars trained on an image. Do take the extra time to consider your mount options, as it can help you gain hours of enjoyment with your giant binoculars, night vision binoculars, or rangefinders.

About the Author

Derek Robinson is a keen outdoorsman who contributes regularly for many websites including The Binocular Site which is the premier consumer site about binoculars, monoculars, spotting scopes and much more at http://www.thebinocularsite.com

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Binoculars For Astronomy - Know the Basics

by Aidan James

If you like to look to the heavens even just occasionally get yourself some decent binoculars and indulge in a little binocular astronomy. Think about it, binoculars are inexpensive, highly portable and require no complicated setting up procedure so are ideal for casual astronomy.

Binoculars allow excellent moon views, and great viewing of star fields, comets and even deep sky objects. They are especially useful for beginners as unlike astronomy telescopes they keep the view the the right way up, making it really easy to navigate the skies. With a little practice you can pick out several of the planets and even the larger moons orbiting Jupiter. Clusters like Pleiades look great because the binoculars wide field of view lets you have more of the cluster in view at one time than a telescope would.

So how to choose which ones? Binoculars have two specifications marked on the body of the binocular in the form of 7x 50, where the first number represents the magnification (in this case 7 times) and the second the aperture in millimeters (50mm in this case). When it comes to selecting the right binoculars for astronomy, aperture is the most important feature to think about. The bigger the aperture the more light is captured so the brighter and clearer the image will be. For astronomy use you will need at least 40mm aperture and preferably larger.

You will need a magnification factor of at least 7, maybe up to 10 if you have a steady hand. Any higher than about 10 times magnification and you will need to mount your binoculars on a tripod as the hand shake effect makes it difficult to get a sharp image.

There are giant binoculars available with higher magnifications and apertures which are designed for astronomy use but you will certainly need a sturdy tripod or mount to use them. These can offer excellent viewing up to about 25 times magnification with 100mm apertures.

This brings us to another point, a specification known as the 'exit pupil'. This specification refers to the diameter of the shaft of light that exits the eyepieces and into your eyes. You can easily calculate it by dividing the aperture by the magnification so that 7 x 50 binocular has an exit pupil of just over 7mm. Capturing as much of that as possible is good as it means all the available light is getting to where you want it, i.e.your eye. If you are still in your twenties you can probably use all of that 7mm exit pupil mentioned above as your pupils will dilate to about that size in very dark conditions, however as you get older your pupil does not dilate more than about 4 to 5 mm so large exit pupils are wasted (though it starts to make those 25x 100's look good!).

You might notice another specification marked on the binocular, the field of view (FOV), it refers to the apparent side to side view as you look through the binoculars. It will be expressed as an angle in degrees or a measure such as 340 feet at 1000 yards. For astronomy use we can generally ignore that factor, it really does not matter a great deal at the distances we'll be viewing at.

So now you have the basics why not get yourself some binoculars and indulge in a little casual astronomy, you'll be rewarded with some wonderful sights!

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