Newbie buying binoculars

Hi all, I'm a complete newbie to astronomy, and need some advice.
Ok, so I wanted to get a top class telescope, all nice and shiny, but realised from reading advice on the boards here that I wouldn't have the first clue what to do with it. So, I'm buying my first pair of binoculars.
And I'm confused already!
7x50, 8x50, giant binoculars etc.
If anybody has any opinions on which are better, I'd really appreciate hearing them.

hi lynners good to have you on board ,firstly you are making the right decision in starting with binos a lot of people go and buy a telescope and after a couple of hours not being able to see anything they get frustrated put it back in its box and thats it.The trouble with a telescope is its field of view (that is the amount of sky you can see when you look through the eyepiece)is very small so the chances of you finding anything interesting without knowing where to look are very slim.With binos the field of view is much larger plus they are a lot more user friendly ie:you dont have to worry about aligning and tracking etc.A pair of 10x50 are perfect to start off with, the 10 means how much magnification you are getting so an object will appear 10 times bigger than what you will see with unaided eyes the 50 means the diameter of the lens in millimetres.You may also want to purchas a tripod and there are plenty of books on astronomny with binoculars maybe someone else on the board can reccommend one hope that helps.

Hi Lynners

Welcome to the boards. As dogstar says 10X50 binoculars are an excellent choice. As for a book to use, why not check out the binouclar challenge link on the home page. you can download a book with 110 binocular objects. it is an excellent guide.
If you are buying binoculars, I would try and get someone from your local astronomy club to give you a hand picking them out. if you are buying one locally, beware of rubbish ones from the local camera shops. I dont know if lidl will be doing binoculars again soon, but for less than 20 euro, these would be perfect for a beginner. They usually do them a few times a year. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Welcome to the boards lynners! Trevor and dogstar above have given you some sound advice.

By way of welcome I have arranged for a new star to appear in the sky.
(Had to move heaven and Earth to do it.)

Visible in binoculars.

See it here:

skytonight.com/observing/home/Nova-Sco-2007.html

Peter.

Thanks guys, really appreciate your help. I'm about to buy a pair of 10x50 from Northdown Telescopes so will let you know how I get on.

pmgisme - I'm touched, truly!