The Bottom Line: For the low price, this binocular is perfect for locating deep space objects prior to moving to the telescope. Would not necessarily recommend for sole use.
steelbiker421's Full Review: Celestron SkyMaster 71009 Binocular
I purchased these binoculars this past weekend prior to reading the earlier review. Had I read that review prior to purchasing these binos, I probably would not have purchased them.
That being said, my expectations when I purchased the Celestron 15x70 Skymasters were not that great given the rediculously low price--$90.00 at Highpoint Scientific. My intention, is simply to use these binoculars to help locate deep space objects, which I then would go to with my scope.
These binoculars are replacing my 7x50 Celestrons that I used for 20 years but are no longer (let's not go there). I always thought it would be nice to have a little more light gathering ability, anyway. Also, now that I am older and have perhaps 5mm pupils, I might as well take advantage of more magnification instead of wasting the light from a 7mm exit pupil.
Highpoint individually checks each binocular for alignment before accepting them, which, for my money, is certainly worth the extra $5-$10 over the price of, say Adorama. Before I took them home, I opened the box and looked through them just to make sure right and left were aligned and they were. Also, the circles formed at the back of the binos are perfectly round.
Last night, with ok seeing between the clouds here in light polluted NJ, I gave them the test. The Skymasters are perfectly aligned near as I can tell. I don't get that dull ache that non parallel binos give. The binos are not too good on individual stars. The stars are not pinpoints as I am used to seeing. The right side is good. The left side has slight coma. This could probably be corrected with some slight collimation adjustment to the prisms. However, for now, I will leave them be. If it proves bothersome, however, I will tweak them. Inside and outside focus on a star on the right side produces round disks. On the left side, there is coma. There was much internal reflection and some slight glare around the brighter stars. This seemed to disappear as the night wore on. Perhaps the binos were adapting to the cold or perhaps there was some initial dew that I didn't notice. I'm hoping that whatever it was, it was temporary.
The moon was incredible in these binoculars as it should be. There was some chromatic aberration on the edge of the moon. The Pleiades were just nice taking up about one half the field, which is good since the edges contain mucho astigmatism. Andromeda was really quite pleasurable as was the double star cluster in Perseus. The relatively large 70mm objectives really shine in terms of bringing in the light of these objects. The relatively high magnification seems so darken the background as well, adding to the quality of the view despite the local light pollution caused by my earthling neighbors.
These binoculars are at the upper limit of hand holdability. I checked out the larger Celestron 20X80s and 25x100s that were on display. They are unusable without a mount unless you happen to be the Gofonnor of Caulifionia. The 15X70s are considerably lighter, however.
To my way of thinking, the 15x70s are meant to be used for helping to locate difficult objects prior to honing in with a telescope--and for that, they are perfect. On the other hand, if I were interested in using only binoculars for astronomy, I would get bigger ones of the highest quality with the heaviest mount I could afford. I would also get a cot or something comfortable to lie down on so as not to strain my neck.
How do they compare with my previous 7X50s? Well, the wider field of the 7X50s was probably better when I was new to astronomy because it enabled me to find things more easily. The smaller field of view of the 15x70s is not much of a drawback now that I am more experienced. Stars tend to bounce a lot more while holding the 15x70s but this is not really a problem for locating deep space objects. Conversely, the greater light gathering ability combined with the greater magnification blows my 7x50s away.
The astigmatism at the edges, the non pinpoint nature of the individual stars, the internal reflections and ghosting I can live with at this price. If the glare proves other than the gas cloud around Merope, I might have a problem. All in all, at the price of these binoculars, they are acceptable for their intended use so I will keep them.
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