Astronomy is a fascinating subject and space is a great mystery. I can bet, every time you look at the sky, it looks different and stimulates curiosity in your mind. Stargazing and sky watching are very popular hobbies among children and adults. However, scientists use telescope and not binoculars because of the long range they offer. Often, they use very high end electronic telescopes as they have a totally different approach: They use radio signals to find objects that are thousands of light years away.

For people like you and me who are looking for something to pursue our star gazing hobbies or want to help our kids learn more about the sky, telescope binoculars for astronomy are the best choice. Telescope binoculars combine the good features of both telescopes and binoculars. There are a wide range of them available on the market, right from low end (under $100) astronomy binoculars which are good for bird watching to higher end ones that can show you rocks on the moon. There is obviously a quality and cost factor that comes in to picture, the farther away you would like to see, the better optics you need, and usually, the higher the price you pay.

Let us now see how you decide what is good for you and what specifications you look for when you are in the store looking at a variety of telescope binoculars. First thing to look at is the Objective lens size - the diameter of the front lens. Since your interest is to buy something to help your astronomy viewing, you should look for the ones with at least 50mm diameter. Of course there are telescope binoculars with apertures as high as 100mm and more. The greater the lens size, the higher the aperture, the more light the lens gathers and hence you get to see objects that are very clear even when it is very dark. Binoculars with aperture less than 35 mm will give disappointing results, if you want to look at the stars.

The other important specification is the magnification. That tells you how far you can see through your telescope binoculars. If the magnification shows 7x, it means you can see an object 7 times closer and if it is 25x, you can see 25 times closer than with the unaided eye. Normally you would see specifications in a format like 7x40mm which means the magnification is 7 times and the lens aperture is 40mm. With a wide range of options, you can easily get carried away and buy something that has high magnification and a huge lens - but then it will lose the mobility factor as you would need a tripod stand to avoid shaking of image. Even the slightest of movement can be a cause for a badly shaken view. In general, any astronomy binocular with an objective lens size over 70mm will require you to use something to stabilize it for great viewing.

So if you are an amateur or looking for telescope binoculars for your kid who is attempting astronomy for the first time, go for something like a 10x50mm which can show you details on the moon and will cost you less. If you are taking your astronomy studies to the next level, go for something like a 25x100mm that can show you things like moons around Jupiter.

Know your needs and choose the right one!