71008 SkyMaster 25x70mm Porro Prism Binoculars with Multi-Coated Lens, BaK-4 Prism Glass and Carry Case, Black

Beautifully clear image offered by the large 80mm lens. They have a robust feel and seem to be well made and should last for many years with care. These are a great starter pair for sky watching, but if that is your main use for them you W|ILL need a Tripod. They are heavy but thats not the real problem, if you focus on anything that is on considerable magnification it is impossible to hold them still enough to get any sort or real idea of the target image, in addition as soon as you try and adjust the focus, you loose the target you are focussing on. I bought these as a powerful set for sky watching, birding, and general scenery when walking and holidaying. Though bulky they are worth carrying for the quality and depth of the image that is available. Easily backpackable. I live in a city and it is amazing the way on a CLEAR night they cut through the haze that is there (but not visible) and allows you so see a complete vista of stars that are not available to the naked eye. I wish I could have afforded the 25x100, but for that cost I will supplement it and buy myself a good telescope. These are fantastic powerful general purpose binoculars and can be used for sky watching WITH a tripod, dont believe reviews that say you dont need it. Great Value. Recommended. I wish they had provided a better padded carry bag.

I've been the owner of a pair of 10x50 Tento binoculars for years, so I decided to upgrade and treat myself. I looked very carefully at each Celestron Skymaster binoculars available to see what might suit my needs. After doing some research and checking each spec, I decided to opt for the 15x70 Skymaster and boy does it do what it say's on the tin. Excellent clarity, great field of view and surprisingly not as heavy as what some people would say. Granted, without a tripod (which I might purchase in the future), they can feel a little heavy after a while, but if you place your hands at the end of the binoculars by the objective lens, the weight kind of balances itself out nicely. Setting up and calibrating the Skymaster to your eye's is very simple. To be honest, unless you are a serious sky watcher, don't get anything bigger than this as your field of view will be seriously decrease and you will need a tripod. 15x magnification is what I would say is in the Goldilocks zone. My Skymasters arrived less than 24 hours after I ordered them with standard delivery and that was without Prime. There was a crescent moon the same night and boy was I blown away. I could see far more details than I ever could with my old pair of bino's. At this price, the build quality is awesome and feels way more expensive than it's price. Just a good bit of advice though which I found when I was doing my research, if you do buy a tripod, purchase a metal tripod holder for your bino's as the plastic one supplied is pretty much useless as your binoculars will bounce at the slightest touch, spoiling your view time, but a metal tripod holder will keep your binocular as steady as a rock.

I bought my 15x70's a couple of years ago as a back-up to my Telescopes for star-gazing! Sometimes the weather doesn't give much time to set-up a scope whereas the binoculars are ready to use at any time: only problem is the weight! After a few minutes the arm strain becomes unpleasant! Using a tripod and adapter does over-come this problem but defeats my original reason for buying them in the first place! However, I have found that lying in a deckchair, or leaning back against a wall, with elbows resting on chest I can support the binoculars for much longer periods without discomfort. While not ideal for viewing planets; Jupiter can be resolved with the 4 Gallilean moons, Saturn can be seen with its rings but little detail, the moon provides endless fascination but can leave you with "Snow-blindness" near to full-moon. Where these binoculars excell is in finding star clusters, the Pleiades look quite stunning! Nebulae and some of the larger galaxies are visible as smudges, some structure can be seen in some and a hint of colour in others. Where my binoculars have come into their own is on holiday: I frequently sleep outside in hot climates and can view many of the sights that are hidden from northern latitudes. They are great for day time use also; whether spying out distant ruins, whale or dolphin spotting, or even just watching those huge cruise liners in the distance. (Note: take as hand luggage on a plane to prevent moisture forming inside!) When unpacking the binoculars for the first time you will find a strange lump of plastic, described as a tripod mount: DISCARD THIS IMMEDIATELY: it's worse than useless! Camera tripods are generally too flimsy to take the weight of the 15x70's but with a good metal Adapter Visionary Heavy Duty Black Metal Binocular Tripod Adaptor - Standard 1/4" Tripod Fitting On Underside - Fits Most 'Traditional' Style Binoculars - Ideal For Very Large Bulky Binoculars and a good quality tripod ~ HALF PRICE ~ Tripod Universal Folding Good Quality Stand for Digital Camera Binoculars Telescope Spotting Scope SLR Camcorder Astronomy Stargazing & Photography Collapsable with Carry Bag 166cm Tall or 65" Inch High Pan Head Quick Release Fits all mak... they become quite manageable. The lenses are coated for night time use which allows excellent light transission to the eyepieces meaning that they work very well in low light conditions: the lack of lens-front reflection means that highly reflective surfaces (e.g. the sea) can dazzle. It might sound daft but the eye-cups allow the user to view through sunglasses during the brighter parts of the day! Excellent introdution to astronomy at a reasonable price, yet versatile enough to be used else-where. Lens quality is good and construction solid: I've now had 2 years of use in all conditions from -30c to +45C, sea level to 3,000 metres and it's never let me down; definitely money well spent! If you are looking to use this for astronomy I would suggest you add a Planisphere Philip's Planisphere (Latitude 51.5 North): for Use in Britain and Ireland, Northern Europe, Northern USA and Canada , a red LED torch OVL Dual Beam Astronomers Torch and a good reference book Astronomy Manual: The Practical Guide to the Night Sky or Binocular Astronomy (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series)

No I didn't spell it wrongly. I am an occasional sky watcher not an avid star gazer. I carry a pair of binoculars in the car to stop and be nosy from time to time an do a few minutes of bird watching if something catches my eye. I asked for a decent (but not expensive) pair of bins for Xmas but was not trusting my wife enough to let her loose on Amazon. I am on the downhill side of life (along with my eyes), I have imbalanced sight and astigmatism in one eye. I researched many Celestron products and some users were critical of bad collimation. These 25x70s were pretty well reviewed and at a very reasonable price for such a high mag product. I noted that some people thought them heavy and were only usable on a tripod and others were critical of the plastic tripod mount. I already had a decent video tripod but made sure I asked for a steel bracket as part of the present. They turned out to be a great Xmas gift and I have used them several times in the last month. Easy to focus and to balance out my eye problems. Heavyish, yes but manageable for a few minutes. Looked at planes flying overhead.....the narrow field of view makes it difficult to pick things up quickly. I scanned across the con trails and then followed the trails to the airliner. Amazingly close and crystal clear (great if you are a plane spotter, which I'm not) but you need to to be hand holding to follow moving objects like this. Left them outside on a tripod for an hour on a cold clear night recently (so that they didn't condense up on coming from my warm house) and then looked at a few stars. As I mentioned earlier I am no astronomer so I was amazed to see a cluster of small stars around a pinkish bright star in the eastern sky. A quick Google search told me I was looking at Jupiter with its moons, surprisingly clear. Our local moon was almost too bright, it completely filled the field of view and was crystal clear. A real wow moment! Great product, fulfills all my requirements for casual close-up viewing. The carrying case is a bit flimsy but fine for the car. Not a set of binoculars to go walking with but would be great if you owned a submarine or battle cruiser.

These are fantastic binoculars, clear and bright with great colouring. Easy to use, no zoom. Very narrow field of view. The full moon half fills your vision! Not sure they’d be good for bird watching. They definitely need a tripod as quite heavy. I got a little Celestron phone adapter so I could take some photographs. I was really happy with them.

My Celestron Skymaster 20x80 binoculars were received a few weeks before Christmas, but as they were a Christmas present bought for me I didn't get any chance to test them out before they were all wrapped up ready for the big day! So now I've had chance and these are my findings after using them for about four or five hours solid. Firstly, I can confirm that mine were NOT out of collimation. I'd been reading all about collimation as a number of people on the net had reported this problem with various Celestron binoculars (and others) so I did absolutely loads of research on the net in case mine needed collimating. In a nutshell, collimation means that the prisms are slightly misaligned causing a sort of slight doubling of the image. Apparently, the manufacturers of Celestron binoculars in China don't have the best quality control system in place and it seems that unfortunately some of these models ship already out of collimation. If you don't know what to look out for chances are you'll just put up with it as it can be barely noticeable, but it can cause eye strain and headaches as your eyes try to 'correct' the image. So, I've been lucky with mine as they are certainly not out of collimation. The image through the 20x80s is great, nice and bright and I found they snapped to a good focus. Focusing on a dark vertical post against a bright sky background revealed a little color fringing, certainly not enough to be a problem, but this will be present in just about any binocular optics anyway unless you go very expensive. All movable mechanisms like the focus wheel and the dioptre (right eye piece) adjustment are nice and smooth with no sign of stiffness thoughout it's range. Finally I thought I'd mention the weight issue as a lot of people mention this. They are pretty heavy yes. unfortunately this is a trade off for the large 80mm objective lenses. If your only using them to grab and use for just a minute or two before putting them down again then you really shouldn't have too much of a problem, but then I'd have to wonder why you would go for something of this size and weight if you never plan to use a tripod. Mounting them on a tripod is without doubt where you will appreciate them most, especially as this is what this model is designed for with the built in tripod adapter. Had a good look at the stars during a brief break in the clouds and it was great. Now looking forward to clearer skies and getting away from all this light pollution. I hope this helps a little. I'm really pleased with mine and wouldn't change them.

No issues, everything working as it should, great magnification but unless you only want a quick glance at something, you need a tripod. I am using my projector tripod which isn't ideal (too flimsy) until a more robust one arrives. Focus was easy to attain and for the price it's an amazing piece of kit. Although on the heavy side they're not unbearably heavy unless using for extended periods of time. Comes with carry bag with shoulder strap and neck strap for convenience (I changed the neck strap for one more comfortable), comfy eye cups which fold down for spectacle wearers and nice fit on your face. Big powerful bino at an affordable price which fits my needs perfectly. Would recommend this product and supplier.

I purchased these binoculars to observe the night sky and occasional birds and other sights. The first problem was with collimation which was set incorrectly, or the package had received a blow which had affected the setting. However, with minor adjustments the correct collimation was established and now eye drain is minimal. I cannot really comment on the quality of the lenses but it seems that for day use the quality is good and the picture is clear but for stargazing the quality could be better as the stars tend to excessively and unevenly "flare" if the focus is not set just right for both oculars. There is a small plastic mounting stand to assist in mounting on a tripod but this is slightly too flimsy for stargazing. The weight is not bad but I wouldn't call these "light" either but the weight helps with stability. The difference in light intensity is very evident between a 50mm and 70mm of Celestron especially in poor light conditions and I'm glad to have a 70mm set despite the bulkier size and more weight. For more serious stargazing I'd recommend 20 or 25 times of magnification, though. Also the lens covers could have some kind of attachment lug to keep them safely on as they were pretty loose and tended to fall off easily. I put a strip of black insulation tape around the rim, not tightly just so that it is there firmly, and now the covers stay on very well. The 15x magnification is comfortable for me and I prefer these over my 8x50 set in everyday use.