Celestron Skymaster 15x70 Binos Review

[bus_ter]

Last night I got first light with my new Celestron Skymaster 15x70 Binoculars from FLO. I've never used binos for astronomy before, so I can only compare my view to my mak127 scope. However I can describe how a few common sky objects appeared last night from my light polluted home location.

Jupiter - The four Galilean moons were easily resolved as four dotted points around Jupiter. The planet itself appeared as a small very bright white ball. No colour or surface detail was viewable. Around the edges of Jupiter I could see red/green CA. I was surprised by just how bright Jupiter appeared, blowing out any hint of colour. With an ND filter and stable mount I would expect to see at least some colour.

Andromeda - Easily located and looked like a little smudge, which to be fair is exactly how it looks through my scope from my location.

Orions Neb - The binos resolved a lot of stars around the Nebula area, but there was no 'nebulosity' apparent. This is mostly due to being in a light polluted location.

Stars/Clusters - Where you see one star with the naked eye you see 20 through the binos. They remain sharp and without noticeable CA. Stars also keep their colour well, red stars stay red, blue stars blue etc (unlike my finder scope where every star looks the same..) Star clusters looked great filling the view with stars.

Build and accessories

These binos are substantial, in fact larger than I imagined they would be. They're also fairly heavy, so only suited for short viewing sessions, but still quite manageable. Any bigger would be too big IMHO. Leaning against a wall helps a lot, as does supporting the weight of the binos. The binoculars come with a tripod mount adapter which looks a little flimsy and might produce some vibration, but would still be better than freeholding.

Other accessories include a simple lens cloth, a low quality carrying bag and a thin neck strap that will probably act like a cheese wire on the back of your neck. These are all budget accessories, but these are budget binos, so really we should be happy to have them included. There are two rubber lens caps and a rubber thing that goes over both the eye pieces. I haven't really worked this out yet, it doesn't really stay on very well. There's a slot at one end, so maybe you're supposed to feed the neck strap through and tie it on?

The quality of the glass and optics seem good. There's a green tint to the glass showing some sort of anti-reflective coating has been applied. I'm not an expert in binoculars, but I'm guessing Sky at Night are more so, and they gave the optical qualities of the lenses a very positive review. So it's good to know that where it really matters (optical quality) hasn't been budgeted too much.

The binos are covered in rubber, and the grip is good. Where the objective lenses have been fixed is a sort of plastic ring. On one of my lenses it doesn't fit flush and sticks out past the rubber lip. The lens still feels solid and it doesn't affect the views, but does show there may be some variance in QT between samples. As such FLO check these before sending them out (which these presumably passed), which is a very good reason to buy direct from them. The other of course is that they're selling for £50 right now (limited time only) which is a lot of glass and optics for the money. Especially when you consider you can easily pay this for a single eye piece! If you're reading this when the price has gone back to £75 have a search online as you can usually find them ranging in price from £50-£80, though you won't get FLO's top service.

All in all I'm very happy with these, £50 well spent.

[JamesM]

Thanks for the review Buster looks like they're a good bet, especially as FLO has got them on offer. They are heavier than a standard 10x50 pair but I thought there were a little lighter than I imagined they would be - but you're right, you couldn't spend all night looking through them.

Again thanks for review.

James

[rabbithutch]

Your experience is the same as mine except that mine came from an American retailer instead of FLO. I paid about $70 and got free shipping, in case there are any on this side of the pond interested, through Amazon.

I've used the glasses several times and even tried them on some rather insubstantial tripod legs. The tripod experience was far less than satisfactory.

I have on order a Manfrotto grip mount and a monopod with a foot. They should be here within a week; and, with luck, the clouds will have departed and I can give them another go in a sky not flooded with moonlight.

Clear skies

[celestron8g8]

I've had a pair for several years now . Got them for christmas . I have totally enjoyed mine . Your pretty much straight on with your review tho . Jupiter is extremely bright reason no color shows up . That brightness brings out the CA in the binocs but for the incredible views it gives especially in very dark sites more than makes up for the CA cause in dark skies the CA isn't as bad except on the moon and even then it's minimum . Heavy yes after a short period . I have a HD tripod i mount mine on using the tripod attachment . Shakes alot still but when it settles down it's a great view . In middle December i have seen the Adromeda galaxie in it's full when it's really dark and i must say it's quite a view ! The Orion neb i can see as a whole also and it's magnificant to view with these binocs . Don't be dissappointed if your in a LP area or on a clear Full Moon night cause these binocs absorb alot of light and if LP is bad then your going to get alot of glare but when you get out in a dark skie your gonna get your socks blowed off , i promise !

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I bought a pair of Celestron 15x70, and found the plastic tripod attachment worse than useless. I got a metal one instead and that works fine. Worse, my pair were seriously mis-collimated and contained some debris in the optical path. I sent them back and got a pair of Omegon 15x70s in return (Celestron clone). These were quite well collimated (not perfect, but they cause no real eye strain), but did not include the tripod adapter (no worries there then).

I really enjoy them, especially in dark sites. One gripe I do have is that the central focuser is too wobbly: I constantly have to refocus and readjust the dioptry control of the right-hand EP. I am considering replacing these with an APM counterpart (nitrogen-filled, with individual focuser, more than 4 times as expensive), but mainly because I do like looking through big binos.

[mr saddo]

Hi there, i have a pair of these and i really like them, had them out other night looking at pliedies really good, even my daughter was impressed with what she saw, i made amount out of scaffold 6FT pole and a 45 degree wedge with a bolt on for the mount.

[garethmob]

Iv got there's had them from FLO. Last night after my carbroke down on coldra took them out saw the paelidies. Really really nice used the car roof as a tripod lol.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Interesting objects people are seeing: the pliedies, paelidies

I of coarse never grabble wrods wehn tpying uqikcly

[E621Keith]

Thanks for the review. I was thinking to get a pair of these to replace my broken 10x50. However, their size may be an issue if I tried to hand hold them for the night.

[Makron]

Interesting!

Thanks for the review

[hinch]

Got mine for under £60 from a well-known auction site and paid another £1 for next day delivery.

Quite robust and well balanced. Jupiter, Andromeda, Orion & lunar stuff very good. The lens cloth and neck-strap are a bit naff as is the budget carrying case but it came with a 10-year warranty which is good.

Totally agree re tripod mount. Cheap and nasty but lenses seem quite good. Also great for watching shipping and birds.

Am pleased with the purchase. Great for keeping in the car for evenings when setting up your telescope is not an option.

[Dan_Solo]

Just got myself a pair too, can't wait to get them.

Thanks for the review

[Nick*]

Spot on review, some things about them are 'budget' but for the price you can't grumble. The mount is a bit unstable, but I find when mounted to a tripod theres next to no vibration and the views are great for the money.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Spot on review, some things about them are 'budget' but for the price you can't grumble. The mount is a bit unstable, but I find when mounted to a tripod theres next to no vibration and the views are great for the money.

My Omegon clone of the Skymaster 15x70 did not come with a tripod adapter, so I bought an aluminium one (the Skymaster's plastic one is a waste of space). I then built this:

http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/154871-diy-parallelogram-mount-made-my-15x70s.html

Really handy for these bins. You can also aim at something, and the adjust the height to suit e.g. the kids, and it still points at the same object.

[Andromeda1983]

Really enjoyed the review, I now have a pair too and think they look and feel great, just waiting for clear skies to try them out!

[rory]

thanks for the review.  thinking of purchasing a pair myself .