Reviews & Ratings for Celestron SkyMaster 15x70mm Porro Prism Binoculars — 6 reviews — Page 1

Overall, I would recommend these binoculars. They feel sturdy, adjust easily, and I can see so much! I found a star cluster the other day, just by accident. I only have two complaints. Firstly, these don't pick up yellow light very well. Jupiter looks dinner through these than to the naked eye. Secondly, the detachable arm that comes with it for mounting the binoculars on a tripod is a flimsy plastic one. You'd need to replace that with something sturdier if you want it to hold without wriggling.

This is a great giant binocular, recommended for deep space view. Slightly large and bulky, but still managable with 1 person. Views are great, you can see open clusters, nebula and moon clearly with high detail. With tripod will be an excellent choice
Pros: Good View
Cons: Unstable to be handheld long, slightly on heavy side

Best deal for the price of any astronomy binoc to me anyway. Once I put a wide strap on them, they became my favorites. I did not know the center star in the pleides was vivid yellow. Of course if the star is not really yellow, then these are horrible binocs. They won't replace my Japanese 9x63s for day and night, they are my favorite grab for quick evening only sessions.
Pros: well built, excellent images throughout range, large aperture
Cons: strap is useless unless you enjoy discomfort

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.
Pros: price, usability
Cons: collimation

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.