Stars are not points...

Hi everyone,

I've been using a few pairs of old binoculars that my Dad had around, but I've been wanting to buy a decent pair for nights when I don't want to drag the scope out.

One thing I've noticed is that in every pair I've tried (about 4 so far), stars were never a distinct point of light when focused. They always have what I'll call a "flair" of light coming out of one side. It's always very small, but really annoying, especially when looking at Saturn or Jupiter.

Is this likely an alignment problem with the binocs, or could it be something in my eye? I've noticed that as I defocus the binos this flair gets more pronounced and eventually a bright star or planet will look more like a comet.

These are not fully multicoated, but I know the one pair my Dad loaned me were rather expensive when he bought them about 30 years ago...but they were also used quite a bit on a small sailboat and probably took a few knocks (these were 10x50's). Then ones I'm using now are only 7x35's, but they show the least amount of this problem so I've been using them.

Thanks & clear skies,

Gary

They never will. Even the 6.5 meter at Mt.Hopkins will not resolve stars to "points of light" There was a piece in the Q&A section of S&T or Discover magazine just recently on that subject.

To resolve a star as a point it would have to be HUGE.

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