Review and First Light Report - Revelation 15x70 Binoculars

[JamesK]

Alright, this is my first review so it probably isn't going to be fluent and/or technical, but here goes...

DISCLAIMER: ALL OPINIONS ARE MY OWN AND SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS EXPERT ADVICE.

Purchase:

I was looking for a good pair of binoculars to replace my old 76x700 department store reflecting telescope - this would be my first good quality piece of astro kit. After asking for advice in these forums, it was identified that for my needs a 15x70 was the way to go. Being on a tight budget, I was quite pleased when I was pointed towards the Revelation 15x70s from TelescopeHouse, eventually taking advantage of the bank holiday 10% off offer to purchase them with a tripod for under £65. Given the relativly low price, I was quite concerned obout the quality control.

Service:

The binos arrived on Thursday - I was pleased with the large, protective packaging. There was no way the binos could take any damage through this! Package arrived within three working days - not bad for a package sent via Royal Mail. I also revieved a metal l-bracket - I was excpecting the plastic one that I have heard a few complaints about. Unfortunatly, the tripodand bracket did not come with instructions - had to work it out myself, not too hard, but could be damaging if someone got it wrong.

Examination:

The binos looked solidly made. The IPD, diopter, and focus adjustments were fairly smooth. The exit pupils were perfectly round as far as my eyes could tell. The lenses were clear of any obvious scratches, altough some dust had settled on the main lens. One of the primary lenses showed two tiny faint smudges (fingerprints?) when i examined with a torch, however these were faint and insignificant IMHO, not enough to warrent sending them back, or attempting to clean them, after what I read in Turn Left at Orion. Coatings seemed to do their job, reflections in the lenses were faint, dark and coloured.

However the one main let down has the tripod - altough it was fairly stable, the altitude adjustment was sticky - it was difficult to move accuratly within an estimated 0.5 of a degree. The rotation (azumnith?) was fairly smooth.

Daylight Testing:

Binos kept IPD and focus well. The was some green/purple fringing around some high contrast objects,, but it was relativly minor. I detected some 'false colour', as the binos were more like looking through a window than looking through open air in my opinion. Obviously all binoculars have this effect, but the effect is more pronounced than in my 12x32s. Still, not too obtrusive. The binos focused well over about 15-20m away, again just an estimate.

First Light and Night Testing:

On returning home from the rugby match (Win!), I discovered that my family had been sitting out looking at the moon through the binos - they seemed quite excited about the amount of detail they could see. I was invited to take a look - and was quite pleased myself at the amount of detail. The moon was smaller than in my scope, but showed more detail due to the much improved resolution. I took one look at the skies and got the camping chair, palnisphere and TLAO out - still waiting on the pocket sky atlas I have ordered.

My first stop was star testing on the brilliant Arcturus, as the skies were still quite light at 10pm, NELM was about 4, maybe slightly less. The star was pleasing pinpoint, and showed much less glare than in my scope. The colour was a much more brilliant red and more noticable than my scope has shown me on any star. I was also quite pleased that even at this light, I could see many more stars than I can with the naked eye. Focusing in and out showed nice even circles of light, however, I believe the centre of the disk was slightly off where the point of the star is when focused. Unsure of the cause of this, but didn't seem to cause any problems.

Next up was Saturn. I didn't excpect to see the rings in 15x70s - but I managed to see a line acoss the centre of the small disk quite easily - even more conspicous were Saturn's "ears". However a small amount of colour fringing was visable around the disk at anything less than perfect focus. I believe I may have also seen Titan - but as I did not have it's position relative to Saturn on me at the time I cannot confirm this.

Looked at Cor Coreli, at a split of about 20 arcseconds, I saw an elongated star - one side yellow, one blue. Good resolution again from the binos.

Capped the bins for a bit and watched some sttelite passes - four bright ones in twelve minutes! Good night for sats, obviously. When looking through my bins and noticed a few dimmer objects, floating across the FOV - could these be dimmer sats or juct planes?

Talking of the FOV, I was delighted how wide it was - you can fit a lot in 4 degrees!

By this time the NELM was 5 - tried to look for some globs but all the ones I had the position of had moved into unfavourable positions! The Great Hercules Glob was to close to my zenith for the binos - didn't want to mess about taking them off the mount at this time. Instead, Cassiopia had moved into my field of view, so I browsed that very wonder-rich area for nearly half an hour, seeing some fainter fuzzy/grainy globs and some nice clusters with lots of double and triple stars on offer. I say so many stars - can't say accuratly without a star map but I must have been seeing to at least ninth magnitude - and I could easily tell the colours quite clearly of anything above 4-5th mag - 6th mag stars seemed suprisingly bight!"

I then 'wandered' up the milky way, just taking in the views... so many stars...

Before arriving at Albeiro. My first look at the famous double. How good is that thing! Contrasting colours stood out amazingly well through the binos - the split was easy! The incrdiable milky way background of stars against the highlight of the night - just amazing!

In conclusion, for any beginners on a tight budget, who want something a bit higher arpeture/magnification than you hand-held 10x50s, 8x40s, 7x50s or whatever, do not by one of those £50 argos scopes. Get a pair of these - or the identical Celsteron Skymasters if you nedd the gaurantee - you won't be dissapointed!

James.

[argonaut]

James,

What a excellent review of your new binoculars. Much better than my reviews.

I've never had the Revelation binoculars,so it was a revelation. Everything that people need to know if they are thinking of buying these binoculars.

I believe the collimation is just slightly out which is causing the off centre image. Is the image off centre N-S or E-W? Nothing at all to worry about. I was surprised that the CA is well controlled. This can be very distracting in the cheaper optics(and some expensive ones also).

Congratulations on a very readable report.

Clear Skies.

Glen.

[ashenlight]

James, thankyou for this fantastic review! I have been thinking about purchasing some new binos - think I might look into these, such a great price and they sound worth every penny. Looking forward to more of your reports

Amanda

[JamesK]

Thanks guys,

Hmmm... they seem quite good but this is my first piece of serious (well, relativly) astro equipment so perhaps I'm just easily impressed.

The off-centreness is mainly east-west, maybe a very tiny touch south, I'm not sure. Doesn't seem to affect the optics, as I said it's not off by a lot.

Managed to bag M13 last night before it got to close to the zenith, however because it wasn't very dark this time I could only see the bright core - seemed to have a kind of grainy texture round the edges like TLAO describes though - it was pretty impressive even though it wasn't that dark.

James.

[argonaut]

Could I just say again that your report was very good. I've got to agree that we would like to see more.

It seems you have got yourself a good pair. I have read that horizontal collimation is easier to cope with than vertical collimation,something to do with the eye/brain co-ordination. Having said that,people do differ greatly in this. I seem to be more susceptable to CA than a lot of my friends.

Clear Skies.

Glen.

[gliderpilot]

Thanks for the good report. 15x70 bins are pretty good stuff and yours sound like a keeper. I can't believe you get the bins, tripod and adapter for £65, that's amazing.

Just you wait for the Pleiades and the Beehive to come round again. They are stunning through 15x70. All we need now is a large bright comet (fingers crossed).

Mark

[DanDare]

Excellent report James, thanks for posting.

Isn't it awesome just scanning the Milky Way with bins?

Roy

[philsail1]

Very good Review there James.

It's good to see that the "Binocular Review" section of SGL is beginning to get a bit meatier!

No doubt, as you know yourself, binoculars do play quite a vital part in Astronomical observing - and owning a good pair is equally as important as owning a good scope.

Best wishes for many hours of satisfying viewing James.

Excellent.

philsail1

[themos]

I bought a pair of these. I haven't had a chance to point them skywards yet.

[themos]

My pair is slightly miscollimated. Adjustment screws are in the same place as the 10x50 Bresser Lidl specials. Unfortunately, only one screw can be turned, the other seems cemented in place. Still, it is possible to merge the images quite easily. M13 looks a lot better defined in the 15x70 than in the 10x50 and one gets the impression of a deeper star field.

[themos]

Also, I just spotted M5 in Serpens in the 15x70. It's unmistakably a globular cluster whereas in the 10x50 it was easier to overlook.

[argonaut]

Yeh, huge difference from 10x to 15x.

Good to hear that you have some clear skies tonight.

Glen.