Reviews - Celestron 15x70 Skymaster Giant Porro Prism Binoculars, Black - 71009 Reviews - CI-BI-71009

Author: azh from Houston, TX on Jan 28, 2010
Pros:  price, usability
Cons:  collimation
Would recommend:  yes

azh wrote:

1. Price: For this price you will not find a better binocular. 2. Collimation: In my cases only the third item was collimated (two returned items were bought at another seller). By collimation I mean mutual alignment of the right and left tubes. If you can't join the right and left images looking at 10 cm from the exit pupils, return that item. Another problem is that such kind of construction is not stiff allowing tubes misalignment of up to 10' depending on how you hold the binocular. 3. Optics quality: I don't see any difference between this SkyMaster and UpClose 10x50. 4. Usability: Though the binocular is large, it is very easy to observe holding it in your hands (with fixed elbows, of course), so that you don't need a tripod. Note that cheap (<100$) tripods like Vista Explorer do not hold this binocular properly. 5. Technical characteristics: field of view is 4.2 deg; theoretical limiting magnitude is 11.5 - up to now I did not see stars fainter than 10.5 mag; theoretical resolving power is 4" - actually 8" because 5 mag star size is about 6". To summarize, I recommend this binocular as one of the best tools (in its class) for observing deepsky objects.

Author: altaka from jefferson maryland on Jan 14, 2009
Would recommend:  yes

altaka wrote:

Brings in a lot of light and very light to hold for their size. Orion Nebula is very graphic, didn't think a set binoc's could be so good.

Author: Jeff Fleenor (verified customer) , Engineer, from Pella, Iowa on Jul 24, 2007
Pros:  Great value for the money
Cons:  High magnification require stabilization or patience for the novice user.
Would recommend:  yes

Jeff Fleenor wrote:

I read Astronomy Magazine and in one of their article comparing binoculars, the Celestron Skymaster 15x70 were rated one of the best buys for your money. I wanted them for casual astronomy observing, college sporting events, and field use. If you are a novice to binoculars, beware that these have such a high magnification that they are best stabilized with a tripod or elbows on your knees. This is about my third pair of binoculars I have owned and I really like them. They are the envy at every college football game I go to. Everyone wants to look through them. If you want to look at the moon or better yet the Milky Way, you will be amaized, especially kids looking through them for the first time.