Celestron Binoculars?

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Hi guys,

I'm looking to purchase a pair of reasonably priced binoculars for the purpose of viewing the moon, planets, Andromeda etc and have narrowed it down to three pairs from the Celestron range.  I have read quite a number of good reviews of their binoculars, and it seems that for their price, they are hard to beat.

Of course, if anyone has any further recommendations, I am willing to keep my options open, but for now, the choices are as follows:

SkyMaster 15x70

SkyMaster 25x70

SkyMaster 20x80

I'm guessing that they all use a similar quality of optics, but I'm just trying to decide the best option to go for? 

As they will be used 100% of the time on a tripod, weight doesn't really come into the equation.  I suppose I'm leaning more towards the 20x80 at the moment?

Thanks for any advice

Russ

[vvsloan]

Hi there,

cant help you re the decision between 15x70 or 20x80 but I do know that between 15x70 and the 25x70 you are going to compromise the brightness of the image with the higher magnification..''Increasing the magnification means that the light from the objective lens is spread over a greater area, giving a dimmer view that at lower magnifications'' (Phillips Stargazing with binoculars, 2007).

These revelation-astro ones 15x70 ones are exactly the same as the Celestron, same internals, same optics ect (made by same manufacturer, I think)..(and according to the man at  http://binocularsky.com/ are even slighlty better) and are on special offer at £49.99:

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Revelation_15x70_Binocular_Special_Offer.html#aBC011

Personally, even tho the rev-astro 15x70 are totally ace, if they're going to be constantly mounted and weight isnt an issue, I'd go for a higher aperture than 70, bigger and better (20x90?) if funds arnt an issue. I couldnt push past 50 quid but I'm totally made up with my new bins ,

Vic.

[ToxoLight]

Hi Russ and welcome to the lounge, have a look hear http://binocularsky.com/ it's a great site full of info for the bino observer.

Oops didnt read Vic's reply, enjoy your choice.

[Steve Ward]

Highly recommend the 15x70's ...  

The Andromeda galaxy , Pleiades and the Sword of Orion fit the FOV  beautifully , I get my best view of M31 with the binocular without a doubt.

[baggywrinkle]

Go for the 15x70

[Pete Presland]

i have the 15x70 and 20x80 skymasters. the 15x70's i use more than any other piece of equipment, they are excellent! powerfull enough to give good views, light enough to hold for extended periods. the 20x80's are much heavier and would benifit being on a tripod.

[Fahndar]

I had to make the same decision last week: between Skymaster 15x70 and 25x70 and I chose 25x70. I live under suburban skies so 25x70 definitely will provide darker sky background. My 7x50 for example are  worthless in these conditions. My 16x50 and 20x60 perform much better and I wanted bigger binoculars to see higher mag stars so I had to get higher magnification than my 20x60 to offset the light pollution gathered by the bigger 70 mm lenses. So if you are under dark skies 15x70 are better but if you have light pollution I would definitely choose 25x70. If tripod will be used all the time I would get 25x80 or 25x100, but I wanted mine to be hand held. I am still testing but after 3 nights I can say I have no issues holding 25x70 in my hands (with elbows on the lawnchair's armrests, lying flat, holding binocs by the barrels at the objective end and resting the eyepieces on my eyes).

[Pint Of Stellar]

Following other advice on here I went for the 15x70 Revelations and use them on a monopod with an action grip and have had no trouble at all with them albeit with the recent weather it has not been as frequent as I would have liked.