Anyone have suggestions on steadying a pair of 20 x 50mm binoculars without a tripod?

5 Comments

1. Flagg says:

   April 7, 2010 at 5:02 am

   Well, holding it with a towel won’t do much, as the movement is still translated through your hands.

   From my experience with astronomy through binoculars, I found the best and most comfortable position was lying on my back and letting the binoculars just sit over my eyes with my hands just there to steady them.
   The downside to that is that you can’t see much else than what’s mostly right above you.

   Holding them against a tree would definitely help. That is a technique often employed when taking photographs. You might search for other techniques that photographers use, as the principle is the same for using binoculars!
2. Viola At Neon says:

   April 7, 2010 at 5:54 am

   Buy more appropriate binoculars. Why do you want 20x?

   Buy image-stabilized binoculars. They’re expensive, but great fun.

   The Pleiades are a religious experience in 20×80 binoculars.
3. Richard says:

   April 7, 2010 at 6:49 am

   Rest the binoculars on a beanbag or sandbag. If you don’t have one, make one yourself. Pour sand or beans in a cloth bag. Then sew it shut. Rest the binoculars on the beanbag/sandbag. (After you put the bag in a comfortable location) Find the object you are looking for. Then take your hands completely off the binoculars and observe the object. The moon would look great through those binoculars, but you might need sunglasses with a nearly full moon.
   Here’s an added idea. Since you are hiking, don’t sew the beanbag/sandbag. Carry it empty. When you get where you are going, fill it with dirt, or sand. Tie the bag shut. It could be the world’s first useful dirt-bag!
4. Rob T says:

   April 7, 2010 at 7:28 am

   It helps to understand a bit where the unwanted motion comes from. If you are standing outside in a moderate wind, you have to move about a bit to keep your balance. But as well as that, your own heartbeat generates enough force to move your whole body at every beat. Of course you are not usually aware of this because it has been going on all your life, so your brain has learned how to ignore it – until you suddenly put a 20x magnifier in front of your eyes.

   So you need to achieve two things. (1) make sure the binoculars themselves are steady and (2) make sure your eyes are also steady, pressed against the eyepieces.

   You can use a tree, fence, car roof, etc to stabiliise the binos. Usually, resting your elbows or wrists on something solid is as good as resting the binos on something solid. Just locking your arms against your body doesn’t work very well, since your heartbeat is still moving you around.

   After several years practice I can use 10×50 binos OK without any “artificial” stabilisation, provided there is no wind. But I can’t use 20x for anything without a tripod, or something to rest my elbows or wrists on while holding them.

   For hiking etc a cheap pair of 6×30s or 7×30s are much smaller and lighter to carry and easier to use (and being cheap you don’t mind so much about maltreating them) – but not so good for astronomy of course. Expensive binos that you have to keep in a case to protect them from damage are useless for looking at wildlife etc when hiking – by the time you are ready to use them, whatever you wanted to look at has usually disappeared.
5. Nyx says:

   April 7, 2010 at 7:43 am

   They are expensive and heavy, but worth it. Image stabilized binoculars are a far better way to go than getting 20×50’s. 20×50’s are way to powerful (magnification) for general astronomy usage. Depending on the type of hiking your doing, you would want to lower your weight load as much as possible too.

   Some examples of hiking binos that could double for astronomy work -
   http://www.opticsplanet.net/binhik.html

   Helpful hints before purchasing binos -
   http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2113471/Main/1723161
   http://www.binoculars.org/selecting-binoculars/

   However, other options for holding the binos stable would include would include using a hiking monopole that has a adapter for mounting cameras or binos.

   And as you stated leaning against a stable object helps and also holding the by their objective lens (mounting), not at the eyepiece end.

   Hiking staff with camera attachment -
   http://www.backcountryedge.com/leki-sierra-08.aspx?utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=cpc

   And the all important attachment -
   http://www.thebinocularsite.com/consumer/binocular-mounts.html

   Canon binos -
   http://astroguyz.com/2008/10/09/gear-review-canons-image-stablized-binoculars/