Caelus

Did you get them changed easily enough?

To answer your other question, they should have had a neck strap included in the box.

Well, I took these outside with me tonight and they got used both while my dob was cooling and after it was put away. The sky was still very blue at 2100h, but the brighter stars were out to be seen clearly. First stop was Orion, where his belt nicely filled the field of view. Tracking down from the belt revealed his sword with M42 as a nice, bright blob with some of the brighter stars glowing visibly within it. This would no doubt be more impressive on a darker sky, but it would have dropped behind the houses by the time I could have tested that. Betelgeuse had a distinct red colour. Swinging to the right, Aldebaran revealed what might have been a suggestion of an orange tint and many of the fainter stars just below were also visible. Swinging across to the Pleiades showed the distinct saucepan shape, again filling the FOV nicely. No nebulosity was visible - I don't know if this would be expected in binos or not, but the sky was still quite blue. I stopped by Venus but beyond an extremely bright blob I wasn't able to discern the phase, though my wobbly hands weren't helping matters. Venus did highlight that these bins can suffer a bit with internal reflections, however - something I rediscovered later when I looked at Mars and even at Arcturus. Fortunately the internal reflecting is minimal enough to be irritating rather than ruinous to the experience. Getting darker now, I hopped by Mizar and Alcor which were split clearly, although by hand I wasn't able to split these into their further doubles. Swinging back north and looking low on the horizon, I was pleasantly surprised to find M31 glowing faintly in the twilight and light pollution, Not a lot was visible beyond the nucleus and a smear of glow, but with as darker sky and a greater elevation I'm sure Andromeda would look stunning. Returning later once my dob was packed up, I made a point of scouring Auriga to see if I could find the “Cheshire cat”. I got there after a few minutes, much to my delight. Pleasingly, the open clusters M36 and M38 were both visible through the binoculars, both appearing as group of one or two stars surrounded by nebulosity. I'll be sure to return to these when the Dob is back out!

On the whole, I'm very pleased with the Lidl “Auriol” 10x50 binoculars. The pair I got seem to be fine terrestrial binoculars and more than capable for astronomy too. They're well built and not too heavy to hold and have a comfortable eye relief for longer periods of use. The only real flaw I found with them was the occasional internal reflection when looking at a bright point-light source, so I will have to see how they fare with the moon in a few weeks (I'm not staying up for that!).

For £17 though, I'm really pleased with them and wouldn't hesitate to urge anyone who doesn't have any other binoculars and can get a well collimated pair to go for it!

Well, I've tested the pair I bought following the advice on that link and they seem to pass the tests with flying colours. I'm really happy with my pair of Lidl bins and they're a great pair of budget terrestrial bins if nothing else. I took them to my parents' place today and enjoyed some views across the fens with them, testing them on landmarks at short (~500yd), medium (1 mile) and long (15 miles, approx) ranges. As soon as I have the opportunity, I will see how they fare for stargazing.