As other equipment for visual observations I use Denkmeier binoviewer and some good TeleVue, Pentax and Soligor eyepieces.
For astrophotography I use digital SLR camera - Canon 10D 10D and dedicated guiding camera SBIG STV.
For planetary imaging I use Philips TouCam 840.
No way to cope without a laptop.
Mine is very solid Panasonic CF-71.
Eyepieces:
My small set of eyepieces with barlows.
Binoculars: Zeiss 7x50 and Canon 18x50 IS.
In my opinion binoculars are a great addition to telescope.
Low magnification and large view angle allow for admiring starry sky. We usually use binoculars with keeping them in hands unless it has a power higher than 10x so the image starts to tremble due to our shaking hands which does not allow for seeing details (if binoculars has Image Stabilization system it is not a problem), and binoculars are too heavy, so it will cause tiredness of our hands. An alternative may be a special tripod for binoculars but for me using binoculars with tripod is not comfortable.
The larger lens the binocular has the more light it can gather. Binoculars with lens of 25-30mm will give rather dim views and will not allow for observing dimmer stars and objects. Binoculars with lens of 100mm or more is a large one and not very comfortable.
Canon 18x50 IS I bought by accident I can say but the model was chosen intentionally. One of my friends used to have Canon 10x30 IS, with which I was able to look through. Than I knew that without IS binoculars are a little bit less useful. I decided that I would go for only IS binoculars one day.
Suddenly my friend asked my, if I would be interested in purchasing Canon 18x50 IS in the US. I thought - why not ! And shortly after the decision Canon was with me. It is probably of poorer quality than other more respectable brands (Zeiss or Swarovski), but I saw some people which used high quality Fujions buying Canon IS so I though I could not be wrong with buying mine.
I could buy 15x50 model but finally I decided to have the higher power model as I was told it should have better IS system.
I really liked one binoculars of Takahashi - 22x60 Fluorite but no way to use it comfortable without a tripod and I do not specially love tripods for binoculars.
Technical specification:
Aperture: 50mm (real)
Lens: UD glass (Ultra Low Dispersion, Multi Coated)
Lens' design: 4 elements in 3 groups
Eyepiece's design: 7 elements in 5 groups
Real view angle: 3.7°
Eye relief: 15mm
Prism type: Poro II
Eyesight correction: +-3
IS angle: +-0.7°
Weight: 1.18 kg
If you whish you can download short films (film1, film2) taken with internet camera through the eyepiece of the binoculars to see how IS works.
More information about Canon IS you can find on the website of Canon.
