Have I mentioned how much I love my Celestron Skymaster 20x80s?

[kev100]

Hi all.

I'm sure I must have mentioned how much I love these binos before, but having had them out again last night (first time in ages, and just for an hour), I was reminded of how properly amazing they are. These are my second pair (replaced foc by Celestron after the first pair went out of collimation), and they were checked before being sent to me. Definitely think I've got a good pair!

The Orion neb looked amazing (big bright arc of nebulosity containing bright, pinprick-sharp stars. Star clusters M35, 36, 37, 38, 44, 45 and 67 were fantastic, M45 showing definite nebulosity (not present when compared to the Beehive). Melotte 111 (Coma cluster) and the little cluster of stars around Meissa in Orion were very nice! Galaxies too: M31, 51, 65 and 66 were all variously-shaped faint fuzzies, but very bright and easy to spot just by scanning around. 

There's very slight field curvature, all but unnoticeable, but I'd say stars stay sharp to roughly the last 10 percent of the field.

Definitely a recommended piece of kit!

Kev

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by kev100

[Ciaran Meier]

Big bins are great !! I've a set of 15x70 and just luv'em. 

[AstroAdam]

Borrowed a pair of revelation 20x100s (I think?) for a bit - fantastic bins when they were working well - some amazing views through them, but went out of collimation virtually every time they got moved around!  I'd love another pair of big bins though...

[Magnum]

I just went on hot UK deals and coincidentally they popped up in a deal on Amazon for £153

Lee

Edited February 18, 2020 by Magnum

[kev100]

11 hours ago, Magnum said:

I just went on hot UK deals and coincidentally they popped up in a deal on Amazon for £153

Lee

Wow! That's a great price for the 'pro' versions. Mine are just the standard ones, and they're great!

[kev100]

2 hours ago, kev100 said:

Wow! That's a great price for the 'pro' versions. Mine are just the standard ones, and they're great!

Incidentally, the spec sheet on amazon for the standard 20x80s lists the maximum mag as x16 (x20 for the pro versions). I've queried this with Celestron (David Hinds, actually), and they confirm that the magnifications for both models is x20 ...