Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binoculars

[Mr niall]

Hello

As promised here is my review of the Celestron Skymaster 15x70 bins that I bought from Rother Valley Optics last week.

I went for the 15x70 rather than the 25x70 based on the recommendations from the forum that 25x may be a little too much to try and use handheld, this turned out to be totally true – but more of that later!

The bins arrived well packaged; a box in a box in a box in a box kind of deal. The outer box is flimsy but nice and the bins came with a neck strap, a photo tripod adapter and a case, although this is rather flimsy and wouldn’t stand a four story drop from a tower block… Also included are rubber end caps for both the top and bottom (primary and secondary lenses)

Now I knew these bins were going to be big because I did a fair bit of research but there was large amounts of guffawing and hollering about “daddy’s massive binoculars” during the hours after I unpacked them. However the quality was better than I expected, excellent in fact, large matt textured rubber grips covering the prisms and the tubes themselves were covered in a nice grippy rubberised coating too. The balance is pretty great (tried holding them using the grips which was fine but for astro work found holding the barrels gave even more comfort and control) and there is great eye relief with nicely hooded lenses that are fine to use with my glasses. At the front end the lenses had a slightly green hue from the coatings and were completely enclosed from the end of the barrels so could be placed upright on a flat surface without concern. Focussing action is smooth with a good amount of tension although at either end of the scale it doesn’t “stop” it just kind of gets stiffer and stiffer so that’s something to watch.

First light:

Managed to try them out last Thursday evening in the back garden. Were comfortable to hold for about 5-10 mins but started to become a struggle after that. I have a tripod but have had to order a couple of bits for it so haven’t had a chance to try them out on that yet. Views were crisp and clear across almost all the FOV with no coma really – more like a fade to grey at the very edges. Tried on Saturn, picked up a moon and could almost detect a bit of elliptical shape to the planet which was nice. Very good views of the moon, only a tiny bit of CA visible round the edges which was better than I was expecting as it was super bright, fits nicely in the FOV which is very pleasing compared to my SW Mak 127. Did a bit of deep sky hunting was pleasantly surprised, managed to detect M13 as a definite blob which was more than I was expecting, and just about M92 although no detail. The large FOV of these (4.4 degrees) is brill and having two eyes rather than one is a real plus; a noticeable increase in contrast and resolution compared to using one eye at a time; especially in my light polluted back garden.

Second light:..

Went camping at the weekend. The wife and kids took the binoculars dolphin spotting from the cliffs near Cardigan. All of a sudden “daddy’s silly massive binoculars” were upgraded to “the best binoculars in the world”, all three found them easy to use and comfortable for scanning the waves and cliffs (my youngest is 8) and really enjoyed the views which was nice. It was scanning the cliffs and waves during the day that confirmed to me that the 15x model that I bought was definitely preferable to the 25x. Personally I would not be willing to sacrifice any more FOV or contrast as, for daytime use they are pretty near to the limit of what is comfortably useable for me and the family without a tripod of some sort.

Then, disaster! Had a little clear sky at the campsite on Saturday so thought I’d have a pop at M51 which I realise was optimistic (didn’t find it) but noticed an ever so slight smear to the stars, so it looks like the binoculars been knocked out of collimation at some point over the weekend. I’ve not had a chance to play with the prisms yet – I’ll probably wait until I get the tripod up and running but it looks like these are quite delicate animals; so either they arrived slightly out of collimation when I received them and I didn’t notice, or they’ve been bumped and this has knocked them somehow. This is a little disappointing to be honest as I think we were careful with them but hopefully this is just a teething issue and when adjusted they will keep collimation better from now on. What I did try was adjusting the main barrels to see if that fixed anything by unscrewing each a fraction – it did make a little improvement in fairness. But what I did notice when I unscrewed both primary barrels was that they screw into an (albeit metal) fairly roughly finished agricultural looking thread that was quite gritty and unpleasant to use. I applied a little Teflon grease to each thread before re-screwing and this has smoothed things up a great deal.

But all in all, for the money, still a great buy and a fabulous tool would thoroughly recommend. Despite the issues highlighted above I would like to stress that these are really excellent value for money in my opinion.

As a final note I’d really like to stress that, I imagine like many of us, I jumped straight into astronomy with the purchase of a telescope and massive mount. I really cant begin to express how different the experience of just picking up a pair of binoculars and pointing them at the sky is! The amount of stuff that you can see through binoculars took my breath away and the big field of view makes it so much easier to find things and is so much less stressful than a scope. I would now consider a pair of binoculars as an absolutely vital part of my armoury and would definitely encourage all beginners to invest in a pair either concurrently with their first scope purchase, or even as an alternative to start with.

[Merlin]

If I'd known before hand that the Skymasters are 63 mm ( full ) aperture, not 70mm as advertised, I'd have gone for a more expensive binocular, such as the Helios Apollo 70mm spec.

The Skymasters also have a reputation for arriving out-of-collimation, or easily doing so when handled. So far, mine - 15X70 and 25X70 - are okay.

The quality of the optics are not bad at all, it's the mechanical aspects of the bins where problems can arise.

 

[Mr niall]

9 minutes ago, Merlin said:

If I'd known before hand that the Skymasters are 63 mm ( full ) aperture, not 70mm as advertised, I'd have gone for a more expensive binocular, such as the Helios Apollo 70mm spec.

The Skymasters also have a reputation for arriving out-of-collimation, or easily doing so when handled. So far, mine - 15X70 and 25X70 - are okay.

The quality of the optics are not bad at all, it's the mechanical aspects of the bins where problems can arise.

 

I'm not sure - I paid £50 for mine I still think that represents pretty great value, it's a big jump in price to the Helios. That being said, I do hope I can keep them collimated. 

[Merlin]

If you do have a problem with the bins being out-of-collimation, there are tiny screw under the rubber armouring that allow us to manipulate the prisms.

There are YouTube videos to show how recollimate binoculars.

[Dave In Vermont]

I think this actual aperture v. stated aperture is common among binoculars. You might ask Steve Tonkin (Binocular Sky author) about this if you're concerned.

I, too, have these binoculars. And I was utterly thrilled with what they could do at the super-low price! Mine arrived perfectly collimated, but I'd seen the youtube's on "How-To" if collimation was needed - it's quite simple, really.

Enjoy them - I sure do!

Dave

[Mr niall]

1 hour ago, Dave In Vermont said:

I think this actual aperture v. stated aperture is common among binoculars. You might ask Steve Tonkin (Binocular Sky author) about this if you're concerned.

I, too, have these binoculars. And I was utterly thrilled with what they could do at the super-low price! Mine arrived perfectly collimated, but I'd seen the youtube's on "How-To" if collimation was needed - it's quite simple, really.

Enjoy them - I sure do!

Dave

I agree, they're incredible value and the views they offer for the money is amazing.