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[erikruud]

While I can't compete with Joe's purchases, I also couldn't let him have all the Zoom and Binocular glory. ;D

I got these yesterday.






I found it odd that the mag scale is on the underside but I will probably never actually look at it.


The zoom lever is very conveniently placed.


One end of the optical train


And the other


I am not sure which type of synthetic animal, pleather, vinyl, Naugahyde, gave it's life for this case but it is very nice.


With lots of padding.






I noticed the skies were clear around midnight last night and took them out for a quick trial. I just held them and pointed them at Orion and found the nebula instantly. The sisters looked good too.

I'll have to try them on my camera tripod so I can get a steadier view.

So far I think I like them.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Erik,

Oh, these are cool!

Some would argue that zooms are not as sharp as dedicated focus optics, but I like the zoom and the range of magnification they offer.

I see that it also has the solid heavy duty tripod mount for steady fatigue free viewing. And that case is mighty cool. Well protected and sleek lookin'.

What's the make of them?

[erikruud]

Generic Chinese? Most sites that I can find them on sell them as OpSwiss, but I have seen other names. the warranty card says CSC in Dallas, Texas.

I got them at American Science & Surplus. I had a 20% coupon that was about to expire and I thought it would be cool to have some big binoculars for star parties. I'll build a parallelogram mount for them.

If it turns out that I don't like them, I'll exchange them for the Celestron pair.

They had two different ones listed. A 15x70 and this pair. I thought they were both from Celestron until I was looking at them at the store. These were $10.00 more than the Celstrons, but they have more aperture and the zoom, so I decided to give them a try.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Can't go wrong with them, unless they are so out of collimation or optically poor...that they are frustrating to use.

I had zoom binos before, (not as powerful) - found them acceptable and fun to use.

I would like to take a peek through yours sometime soon.

[Paulie pchris00]

Those look awesome, but I bet they get heavy quick. Definitely gonna want that parallelogram mount.

[erikruud]

They don't feel as heavy as they look, but they are 4.6 pounds.

[patrickm]

They will when you hold them up to your eyes, believe me. And any shaking makes them really irritating to use. Probably even worse with zoom. I predict you will need some sorta tripod. I've tried with the Celestrons. Oh, I've tried.

Let us know. I know you will.

[erikruud]

After playing around with them a bit yesterday, I have decided to return these.

At the 15x end of the zoom, the vignetting makes you feel like you are looking through a tunnel.

At about 25x the vignetting is gone, but the edges of the field start to distort.

At 45x the distortion is bad. The exit pupil and eye relief have gotten so bad that you must hold your head in exactly the right spot to avoid blurring the image.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Aw man...I hate when this happens.

Many years ago, I brought a pair of 20x100 Orion Binoculars...and was really excited about them. At night, I took them out, (quite heavy), and aimed them to the stars.

Thing was that I could not focus them down to pin points...even with glasses on and off. Useless.

Very disappointed and returned them.

Share the frustration well Erik.

[erikruud]

I was kind of prepared for them to not live up to expectations. Especially once I realized they were not brand name. AS&S is great about returns. I doubt I will get the 15x70 Celestron through them though. There prices is 30 dollars more than what Amazon has listed right now.