Oh my my Celestron 15x70 gamble really didnt pay off - at all

[Chris]

Depends on the reviews. I would give a lot more weight to a review in (say) an astronomy magazine or a birding forum than I would to one on (say) Amazon.

yes I meant proper reviews:)

[Damo636]

I have to admit I bought my DSP-1 on the strength of the Amazon reviews but luckily they are pretty decent

The 15x70 I did more research on though but mainly bought them on the strength of Steves (Tetenterre) & Michael F Wilkinsons recommendations.

They have shipped today

[Moonshane]

the Apollo's are very nice Damo. I had a pair once on a monopod. Really quite sharp and well built. Quite heavy though. I could see the Crab, M33, Comet McNaught and M78 in them from home and it's not that dark.

[Damo636]

the Apollo's are very nice Damo. I had a pair once on a monopod. Really quite sharp and well built. Quite heavy though. I could see the Crab, M33, Comet McNaught and M78 in them from home and it's not that dark.

M78 & the Crab with 70mm bins, thats impressive Shane! I know I have have taken one hell of a gamble offloading the 31 Nagler, but stats like those certainly help to put my mind at ease :-)

[Astro_noob]

My budget doesn't let me go so high as Helios Apollos even the cheapest ones, and I own a pair of 7x50 and 8x42s so I am thinking of changing my order completely in lieu of the advice and going for a more portable scope such as a c90 or a 90mm achromat. My current scope a 114mm reflector is awful, I loathe getting it out. I need to at least double my initial value to get an appreciable benefit over 7x50 and even then the views wont be drastically different from what I can currently see as I live in very light polluted skies. The view on a bad day is very orange, I remeber when I first moved into the house I was astonished that skies could look this orange, the pollution is enhanced further by the Scottish Har very similar to fog. Causes some very freakish nights where its so bright outside I can read in the bedroom with no lights on.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have had the Omegon (=Revelation=Celestron) 15x70 and I did like them (and used them without tripod, despite being no Popeye ). At 1.5kg they are actually quite light for their size. The Apollo HDs are much better and brighter (and heavier), and I still use them frequently without tripod.

For a grab-n-go portable setup bins are unbeatable, but if your skies are too light polluted, getting something like a skymax 127 might be a good idea. Really good planetary scopes that can easily be taken along in a car to a dark site. very good visually on all but the most extended DSOs.

[BinocularSky]

getting something like a skymax 127 might be a good idea.

I have a Skymax90 that I use primarily as a small portable "Sun, Moon & bright Planets" scope. Like the 127 (which is a better all-rounder, but heavier & more expensive), the 90 is a lot better on DSOs than a lot of people (probably who have never used it!) would have you believe, and its very "slow" focal ratio makes it very forgiving of eyepiece quality.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have had a look through a 90mm years back and it is very nice. The 4" Celestron Mak is also very nice by all accounts. These small catadioptrics are great portable scopes. Even my 8" SCT OTA weighs only 4.7 kg. The Skymax 102 OTA is only 2.2kg.

[jabberwocky]

I use my 15x70 sky masters hand held, once I've found an object ill then lean on something to steady the view, a tripod defeats the point of binos doesn't it? Optically they are an utter letdown though

[ollypenrice]

Hand holding at 15 times seems utterly nuts to me. Absolutely nobody in the birding world claims this is usefully possible (OK, the net is huge and you'll find someone who does!!!) but some astronomers claim to do so. Trouble is, Michael is about the best visual observer I've ever met and he disagrees. Uh-Oh!!

Shane, how can you not like binoculars?? I'm tempted to offer you a free holiday in order to win you over to bins...and refractors!!!!!

Devellish cunning.

Olly

[Moonshane]

Hand holding at 15 times seems utterly nuts to me. Absolutely nobody in the birding world claims this is usefully possible (OK, the net is huge and you'll find someone who does!!!) but some astronomers claim to do so. Trouble is, Michael is about the best visual observer I've ever met and he disagrees. Uh-Oh!!

Shane, how can you not like binoculars?? I'm tempted to offer you a free holiday in order to win you over to bins...and refractors!!!!!

Devellish cunning.

Olly

in fairness I have used bins all my life in other guises (birding, entomology etc) but for astronomy the craning the neck upwards is a real (literally) pain in the neck. I have tried laying on my back in a sun lounger and made a prototype P mount and even these were nothing like the comfort of a scope. I think this is part of the reason for me not liking refractors too. the observing position always seems uncomfortable (even on a Giro alt az) whereas with newts (dobs at least) it's more often than not very comfortable.

at risk of sounding like a pipe and slippers man I do like to observe in comfort.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Hand holding at 15 times seems utterly nuts to me. Absolutely nobody in the birding world claims this is usefully possible (OK, the net is huge and you'll find someone who does!!!) but some astronomers claim to do so. Trouble is, Michael is about the best visual observer I've ever met and he disagrees. Uh-Oh!!

Shane, how can you not like binoculars?? I'm tempted to offer you a free holiday in order to win you over to bins...and refractors!!!!!

Devellish cunning.

Olly

Always consider that I might be utterly nuts; after all, my wife thinks so .

I have also heard it is impossible to get sharp images with a 400mm telephoto at 1/15 - 1/30 s without a tripod, yet I managed that in Uganda when snapping a woodland kingfisher in Queen Elizabeth National Park (in the woods, on film, so no hope of changing ISO halfway through a roll). I did lean against a tree, and did the usual breathing trick (exhale to about 2/3rds out and relax). I know not everybody can hold a 15x70 still enough, my wife has difficulties with the 10x50. Much depends on breathing (I had an old-fashioned judo teacher who also let us do breathing exercises, that is very useful to become more stable) and relaxing properly. If you try to hold it still by tensing your muscles you haven't got a hope.

in fairness I have used bins all my life in other guises (birding, entomology etc) but for astronomy the craning the neck upwards is a real (literally) pain in the neck. I have tried laying on my back in a sun lounger and made a prototype P mount and even these were nothing like the comfort of a scope. I think this is part of the reason for me not liking refractors too. the observing position always seems uncomfortable (even on a Giro alt az) whereas with newts (dobs at least) it's more often than not very comfortable.

at risk of sounding like a pipe and slippers man I do like to observe in comfort.

Comfort is absolutely essential! Only then can you relax enough, and this in turn lets you see more. A reclining chair removes the crick in the neck caused by straight-through bins effectively, I find. My observing chair lets me sit in comfort behind my SCT (or the little frac, or the Lunt) on its EQ mount.

[BinocularSky]

Hand holding at 15 times seems utterly nuts to me. Absolutely nobody in the birding world claims this is usefully possible (OK, the net is huge and you'll find someone who does!!!) but some astronomers claim to do so. Trouble is, Michael is about the best visual observer I've ever met and he disagrees

I guess this depends on your definition of "usefully possible". Can I get a steady object and see the maximum possible detail the binocular can show when I am hand-holding my 15x70? Absolutely no way! Can I discern the presence of stuff that I can't see in my 10x50? Definitely!

There is no doubt in my mind that hand-holding a 15x70 (a) is usefully possible and ( shows significantly less than when the binocular is mounted.

...but for astronomy the craning the neck upwards is a real (literally) pain in the neck. ... whereas with newts (dobs at least) it's more often than not very comfortable.

at risk of sounding like a pipe and slippers man I do like to observe in comfort.

Comfort for me is now a sine qua non -- bones and joints are far too old and knackered to tolerate much discomfort. I almost always observe seated nowadays. However, unlike you, I find my P-mounted big binos with angled eyepieces much more comfortable than my Dob. Not a lot in it between the Dob and the monopod-mounted straight-throughs.

[Moonshane]

I think angled bins would be the one exception for me but they are quite pricey and I'd just be likely to buy another eyepiece or three!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I find our current car (Espace) is also very handy as a "portable" place to rest the bins on. Nearly as stable as a p-mount, but not ideal for objects near zenith.

[andyboy1970]

I have Celestron 20x80's and absolutely love them.

I have used them handheld but it is far better on a tripod or leaning on something.

Collimation was spot on out of the box.

[floppygoose]

Looks as though I might be in for a disappointment. I have just ordered some £55 15x70 binos, but reading all the above posts, I am starting to wish I had saved my money towards a scope - especially as there are now some half-price offers available at Jessops, who are closing down.

Phil

[cantab]

With these cheap 15x70 binoculars the worst aspect tends to be the quality control. If you get a good pair the views are pretty decent, even with the true aperture being lower than the spec. (At least I think so. Of course I've never looked through a high-end model.) If you get an out-of-collimation lemon you have problems.

And I wouldn't have gone to Jessops. There's every chance you'd have got a naff scope, and with absolutely no after-sales service since they've gone bust. The stores are shut now.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I had a lot of fun with my cheap 15x70s (the first was dud, but I returned it and got a better pair). My main aim was to see whether a pair of 15x70 bins was a kind of instrument I would use a lot (without the outlay af a seriously expensive instrument). If I did not like them I could either sell them (at only a modest loss) or construct a VERY big finder out of them. I first took them to France, where they showed me the North America Nebula for the first time (a good start). I took them to South Africa and Oz, and had some spectacular views through them (LMC, SMC, 47 Tucanae, Omega Cen, etc). The reason I bought the expensive Helios pair is because I liked the cheap one, but by that time started to see its shortcomings.

[kirkster501]

"The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of a cheap price is forgotten"

Benjamin Franklin (or John Ruskin depending on who you believe)

[Markinaboat]

Hi,

At 57, I'm a complete newbie. Bought the Celestron 15 x 70's with the Horizon 8115 tripod last week. Whilst I accept that the tripod mount is like rubber and a steel upgrade will make some difference, I find it almost impossible to focus them, the image is dim and the dioptre adjustment is vague and inconsistent. My old Nikon Action 8 x 40's are far brighter and sharper. I tried the 15 x 70's in daylight and there was no double image so assume that the collimation is acceptable.

Any tips/ideas would be very much appreciated.

[BinocularSky]

You should expect a dimmer image than you do with your Nikon action 8x40. The 8x40 has a true 40mm aperture, hence a 5mm exit pupil. The Celestron 15x70 has an effective aperture of 63mm and an exit pupil of 4,2mm, hence dimmer image. Exact focus is often very difficult to achieve with budget binoculars. The rocking bridge of the Celestron 15x70 and the sometimes poor factory setting of its right eyepiece dioptre exacerbate this. Absence of double image in daylight is not a good indicator (although, if there is one, you'll know that the binocular is grossly miscollimated). The night sky is a significantly harsher test, so try that before you make any conclusions about collimation.

[Markinaboat]

Thanks for your input Steve!

[Astro_noob]

I recently purchased a pair of 20x80 revelation binoculars and can heartily reccoment these. I was able to resolve 2 glbuler cluster as very faint smudges. Quite impressive as I couldnt detect these with my 4" scope!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Depending on the globular, you should be able to see them as smudges in a pair of 8x40s (I did with M13).