Binocs for shuttle launch viewing

[astroman245]

I plan to go see the final ten launches of the shuttle. I've already seen two, so I know how small it looks from where I am. I'm at space view park, which is around 12 miles from the pad. I was looking for a pair of binoculars for viewing the remaining launches.

I don't know much about them, but after looking around, I was considering some cheaper 20x50 pairs. I'm pretty much set on an objective of 50mm or above, but is 20x enough to see the orbiter clearly from 12 miles away? I've found a couple Barska pairs that have a variable magnification up to 36x or 50x. I'm looking to spend no more than $60-70.

I know that's not much, but I will only use them ten times in the next two years, maybe a little more.

So, to summarize: is 20x good enough for 12 miles? Or should I get higher?

Sorry if this doesn't belong here. I know it's not stargazing, but it sort of involves astronomy.

By the way, if you've never been to a launch, I strongly recommend you go before you can't see it anymore.

[RickJ]

You'll need a stand of some sort to support 20x binoculars to see any more detail than you'll see with standard 10x50 binoculars, at least that's my experience. Keep in mind once it is up very far a tripod will be nearly useless, a parallelogram support would be needed. While expensive I'd look into image stabilized binoculars. No stand needed. Some are made for the powers you mention and while not large aperture by day with your eye stopped down to say 1mm aperture isn't important. At 20 power you are only using the center 20mm of the objective! Large aperture is a total waste in such cases. At best you are working at 2mm or 40mm of objective at 20x.

For higher power, if you can track it, a spotting scope (or a 80mm ED refractor if top optics and astro use later are a consideration) with diagonal may be a better value. That will work on a tripod without breaking your neck.

Rick

[astroman245]

So it might be a better idea to get one of the variables then? There's a 12-60x70 that looks good.

[JustAFriend]

High power will just shake around so much that you won't even FIND it in the sky.

Plus, after about 30seconds you're not going to see anything but a dot at the end of a smoke plume anyway.

My Canon GL-2 camcorder has a 20x optical lens and you can see what a 20x50 binocs would show you here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKh6y0wIIc

You might be better off looking for a pair of 10-25x binocs (remember that any higher power than that and the field of view gets VERY small....)

[Kaptain K]

7x50s or 10x50s will be more than enough. Any more and you won't be able to hold them steady enough to see any detail.

[aurora]

I've used my Dob to follow the ISS across the night sky on occasion.

Just an idle thought, I wonder how hard it would be to use a Dob with a low power wide field eyepiece to track a shuttle launch?