Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 binoculars for USD 60 new!!!

majestic · Post by **majestic** » Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:32 pm

If anyone's interested, Amazon is doing these for USD 60 at the moment (they're normally USD 100) with free delivery within the US. I just ordered a pair via vPost - too cheap to resist!

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:13 am

My experience with these has been dismal. Arrived mis-collimated and too cheap to send back to the US.

BTW anybody has experience with Grand Eye HK?

http://www.grandeye.com.hk/7yearsale.htm

I was in HK the past few days but didn't go to his store. Are the prices on his site up-to-date? the 20x80 triplet is listed at HK$ 900 (which is like $165 SGD).

majestic · Post by **majestic** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:38 am

orly_andico wrote:My experience with these has been dismal.

That probably explains why they're so cheap...

That's definitely the issue with buying directly from the US though. I think I may end up paying the extra dollars and buying my scope via the Science Centre shop so I have a local warranty...

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Mon Jan 18, 2010 4:29 pm

I did try to adjust the 15x70s. But I could never get them "quite" right, they still were headache inducers.

I think the A-P (if still available) is the best buy in the 70mm class. The Fujinon FMT-SX has been my object of desire :-) but haven't gotten the justification to spring for $600 US...

crandf · Post by **crandf** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 11:39 am

I ordered them from amazon too. So far quite good, no problems that a newbie like me could notice. Can see moon craters, and venus is a yellow circle, and previously dark parts of the sky actually has so many stars

majestic · Post by **majestic** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 11:27 pm

crandf wrote:Can see moon craters, and venus is a yellow circle, and previously dark parts of the sky actually has so many stars

Haha - mine arrived today and my daughter and I were amazed at how many stars are suddenly visible through them. We were lucky to have a nice night tonight for viewing - the craters of the moon were just…wow!!!…and I was surprised to get a really good look at M42. They're tiring to use for more than a few minutes (they're quite heavy after a while) but easy to keep reasonably steady if you just lie on your back. They will be fantastic for taking on trips away - we always seem to be in dark sky places near the water with zillions of stars.

This has really nailed it for me - it's totally clear now that we have to get a scope!

crandf · Post by **crandf** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 9:42 am

Yah lor yah loh! I'm planning to use them for trips too! I dun need tripods so long as I can get into a good lying down position.

Post by **acc** » Sun Feb 07, 2010 4:36 pm

Mine arrived two days ago and I am very happy with it. The bino seems fairly well-built and has a nice rubber coating on its body. Generous eye-relief even for those wearing specs. No collimation issues on mine, though when viewing bright objects at an angle, some faint internal reflections are visible. In any case for only US$60, this is a great buy! Thanks Majestic for the alert