By Iain Todd

Published: Tuesday, 01 November 2022 at 12:00 am

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Just before Christmas, in late November retailers both online and on the high street offer big discounts on a range of items, hoping to entice early festive shoppers or those looking to grab a bargain for themselves.

This day has become known as Black Friday.

Given just how many of the UK shops that embrace Black Friday are electronic and camera retailers, there are usually good discounts and deals on telescopes, binoculars and other astronomy equipment to be found, provided you know where to look.

 

When is Black Friday 2022?

Black Friday falls on the last Friday of November, which is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US.

Black Friday 2022 is on 25 November, but sales will most likely begin much earlier than that.

If you’re on the lookout for a Black Friday deal, there are usually a good number of bargains to be found at the start of November.

Black Friday binoculars

If you are a binocular observer, Black Friday 2022 could be a good chance to bag a deal and upgrade your current setup

Or, if you’re a naked eye observer or are getting into astronomy and stargazing for the first time, you might want to make that first leap into magnified observing via a good pair of binoculars, before you commit to a full-blown telescope and mount.

We’re still waiting for the best Black Friday binocular deals to be announced, but in the meantime here are some of last year’s deals.

We’ll be updating this page closer to Black Friday 2022, so keep checking back to see whether any good deals on binoculars have been announced.

For more advice, read our guide to stargazing with binoculars or discover our pick of the best binoculars for astronomy and the best budget binoculars.

Black Friday binocular deals 2022

Here are the best binocular deals available so far for Black Friday 2022.

Celestron Outland X

These binoculars weigh just under 800g and boast good colour correction, which during testing allowed us to take some beautiful glimpses of stars like Herschel’s Garnet Star (Mu (μ) Cephei), the brilliant white of Alderamin (Alpha (α) Cephei) and the yellow of Zeta (ζ) Cephei.

The Celestron Outland X is sold as ‘multi-coated’ and we found the anti-reflective coatings on the lenses were effective. Plus, as is the case with most 50mm roof prism binoculars, the minimum interpupillary distance is limited by design. Here it’s relatively large at 61mm.

The Celestron Outland X is currently on offer across a range of online retailers.

Nikon Prostaff 3S 10×42

The Nikon Prostaff 3S binoculars are lightweight, waterproof and designed to resist fogging up. They feature coated prisms and multilayer coated lenses, rubber eyecups and rubber padding for shock absorbance. 10x magnification will give you good views of the Moon and will really open up the beauty of targets like the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula (the latter target, provided your skies are dark enough). As far as beginner and low-budget binoculars go, this is a good option and is currently reduced in price across a few retailers.

• Buy now from Park Cameras, Nikon UK

The Celestron SkyMaster 20×80 offers 20x magnification, multi-coated optics and a central focus knob. Interpupillary distance is 56-72mm and the 80mm and 100mm versions of this model com with a photo tripod adapter.

• Buy now from UK Camera Store

Pentax UP 8 16×21

 

The Pentax UP 8 16×21 come with rubber coating to protect against bumps and bashes, fully multicoated aspherical lens and porro prism. This would make for a good first set of binoculars.

• Buy now from Jessops, B&H