Although I am well equipped regarding telescopes the only binoculars I own are a pair of 35-year old Belmont 10 x 50's made in Japan. I tried them out for the first time on the sky last night and was extremely dissapointed with the results. When looking at a single source target such as Mars it revealed two images side by side. Twisting the binoculars closer together reduced this effect somewhat but no matter what I did I could not eliminate the double image. This problem has probably always existed during daytime use but was masked by the overall sceinc view as apposed to a tiny single point target.
Is this a problem with a cheap pair of binoculars, astigmatism in my eyes, or possibly both? I wear driving glasses for astigmatism but don't need them with my telescopes (with one eye closed) so I did not use them with the binoculars. In fact, until I began writing this thread, my glasses never even occurred to me.
I would like to purchase something in the 12-to-20x by 60-to-80mm range for new binoculars but don't want to spend several hundred dollars if I'm just going to experience the same problem.
What's happening here?
Is this a problem with a cheap pair of binoculars, astigmatism in my eyes, or possibly both? I wear driving glasses for astigmatism but don't need them with my telescopes (with one eye closed) so I did not use them with the binoculars. In fact, until I began writing this thread, my glasses never even occurred to me.
I would like to purchase something in the 12-to-20x by 60-to-80mm range for new binoculars but don't want to spend several hundred dollars if I'm just going to experience the same problem.
What's happening here?