Review on 🔭 Celestron SkyMaster 20X80 Astro Binoculars: A Deluxe Carrying Case for Powerful and Ultra Sharp Focus in Astronomy by Tim Ram

I have read most of the reviews here, on other online forums and here. my opinion on all of this. People on the astronomy forums will tell you that these binoculars are junk, but then they will also suggest that you really need something that you may need to put in a second mortgage to buy a house. What this product is - a pair of Chinese binoculars for $89 - you obviously need to know, and I'm giving it four stars because you can't beat the price with a stick. Mine arrived on time and I found them to be well collimated (aligned). ) If you're careful not to hit or drop them, they should stay that way, but it's pretty easy to do decent conditional collimation when needed. Instructions on how to do this can be found online with a Google search. Their advantage over a telescope is that they can easily be used for both ground-based observations and stargazing. The downsides are that they're quite big and heavy, and at 20x magnification you really need to use a tripod, but viewing a celestial object over about 30 degrees above the horizon from a tripod is pretty awkward because of the angle. This is why telescopes have 45 or 90 degree eyepieces. I've also found that the field of view is pretty narrow at 20x, to the point where you almost need a spotting scope to focus these things on what you want to see. For example, if you look at the moon, you will see it move across your field of view like the second hand of a clock. That's why I ordered a heavy-duty Celestron Alt/Azim tripod with slow-mo control, as a lightweight aluminum camera tripod isn't exactly the right size to carry these monsters. It's funny, but a tripod costs ten dollars more than binoculars. So far I've used them to see the amazing details of the night half moon rising, moons around Jupiter, the Orion Nebula, the seven sisters and a few other things. This was from my backyard with quite a bit of light pollution so I couldn't find the Andromeda galaxy but I'm sure I can get an amazing view in a dark room. They are also good for ground surveillance. and especially at night they give off a lot of light but you can't focus on anything closer than maybe 100 meters or so. So if you think you might be interested in astronomy I would recommend these binoculars. I can understand the Celestron philosophy of offering such a cheap product as a gateway drug. You'll certainly want to upgrade in the future, but it's better than spending $500 on a telescope and then realizing that you don't care much and it just sits in the corner, taking up space in the guest room next to the treadmill. Machine with all the dirty laundry hanging on it.