Celestron SkyMaster 12x60 Binoculars – Wide-Field Long-Range and Astronomy Binoculars – Includes Carrying Case – Multi-Coated Optics

I've been an amateur astronomer for about 23 years. I have a broad amount of experience with the kind of optics that are used for astronomy. I have used most every type of instrument and have visited some of the great professional telescopes. I have hand built my own newtonian telescope including machining the german equatorial mount. Soon after completing this instrument I took it to a star party and ended up on my back with a pair of Fujinon SX binoculars. To make a long story short, I preferred the binos to the view in my telescope. Telescopes are expensive, they are big, heavy, hard to move, hard to store, complicated to set up correctly, and the view through the eyepiece can be crowded and dissapointing. For the casual observer binoculars are the superior choice. They are everything that a telescope is not...relatively cheap, light, easy use. And because they are so easy to use, you will end up using them much more often than you would a cumbersome telescope. That aspect of binoculars alone will make them show you much more than a telescope ever would. The Celestron 15X70 Skymasters are by far and away the best amateur astronomy instrument for the money on the market right now. They are truly and incredible value. You could spend $600+ on Fujinon SX binoculars and have a very fine instrument, but after using these, that would be a hard argument to make. Most everyone's eyes are not able to discern the fine differences between the two instuments. Mind you, I am not telling you that these are as good as the Fujinons, but at about a 10th of the price...well you get the idea. My experience with Celestron is that they are a first class operation. And now with their lifetime no-fault warranty, the best in the industry, you can purchase products from them knowing that if anything ever goes wrong for whatever reason, they will always stand behind their product. If you are looking to get started in astronomy or looking for an excuse to leave your telescope in the closet, these binoculars are a great value and with proper care will last a lifetime and show you more wonders than you will ever see frustrating yourself with a high magnification-small field telescope. Get them, take them outside at night with your kids and wonder why.......

I cannot believe the value and price combo of these.The columnation of mine were a little off but 5 minutes and a 5/64" jewelers flatblade took care of that. Based on how the binoculars prisms are installed (wedged in place with a pair of leaf springs) I can see there might be a periodic need to touch up the columnation so its probably good to learn to do it.The body of each objective lens carrier is plastic and I found the prism housings are cast from metal. The exterior of the glasses appear to be reasonably well finished and there are rubber grips covering the prism housings to make handling them a little more secure.I find the binoculars are bright and clear with an image as good as the stability of the tripod or monopod the which you have them mounted. At this magnification, hand use is difficult to impossible so I recommend a good stable tripod and adapter. Which brings me to the only thing I dont like about the package. The binocular mounting adapter supplied is simply too flimsy to work with something this heavy. The adapter will oscillate about the pan axis when anything is disturbed, and this will go on for quite a long time. The design could have worked with a higher modulus plastic resin, perhaps with a fiber fill, but it wasnt and doesnt. I have a 3rd party adapter coming to correct this but I have read that if one fills the voids within the outline of the beam of this adapter with something like 2-part epoxy, the stability increases a good deal. I havent tried this, but it could work.Edit 1/6/16: The 3rd party adapter I ordered has been delayed a bit and my new tripod was scheduled for delivery today, so I went ahead and filled the recesses of the adapter with 2 part epoxy today. This evening the tripod arrived and with the mostly cured epoxy filled adapter I was able to do a little star gazing. I must say the adapter with the added epoxy is way more stable. No more oscillations. For what its worth I used West System 2 part epoxy resin and hardener that I have on hand for repairs to our windsurfers. It would probably cost one more to buy a package with the amount I used in it than the cost of a better adapter, but I had it on hand and am not expecting to use it up on board repairs so it cost me nothing.