Have you ever heard of image-stabilising binoculars?
You may have guessed accurately that these are binoculars with in-built technology that enables you to observe your distant target without the inevitable shaking caused by holding your arms up.
Traditionally binoculars are the first recommendation to anyone beginning their journey in astronomy and today it is still true. They make for a great start.
Read our guides to stargazing with binoculars and the best binoculars for astronomy
However, even the humble binoculars have undergone redesigns as technology continues to evolve, and today you don’t just have porro prism or roof prism designs, but also image stabilisation binoculars for that crisper view.
In the past such image stablising binoculars were quite bulky, and it is impressive how much they have evolved over recent years and become much lighter with even better image stabilisation.
But why would you want image stabilising binoculars, and are they really worth your hard-earned money?
The benefits of image stabilising binoculars
In short, image stabilising binoculars have internal mechanisms that will instantly adjust for any shaking or wobbling caused externally.
This is what makes them worth considering if you spend a lot of time looking through them.
There are other ways to hold your binoculars steady, but image stabilising binoculars enable you to do so without any further hacks or accessories.
They do away with the need to mount the binoculars on a tripod, meaning one less item to carry with you to a dark-sky site, or when you go on holiday
The reason for using a tripod is that, if you can hold the binoculars very steady, then you gain up to at least one magnitude of star faintness extra.
So if you can hold your binoculars steady without the need for a tripod, so much the better.