What are your experiences with bino "wow" factor?

Loren Toole
Santa Fe, NM

Dark Skies are the biggest factor in getting that WOW. I like hand holding
binoculars and I like wide fields of view.

For me the biggest binocular WOW comes from using my 7x42 Meade Montana roof
prism birding binoculars. They have an 8 degree FOV and it is sharp to the
edge, they are comfortable to hold and just a pleasure to use. The long eye
relief combined with the pull up/twist up style eyecups are a real bonus, I
think those should be standard on all binoculars. No black outs or trying to
optimize the position of my eye.

I was using them under dark skies a few months ago and several other
experienced amateur observers tried them and they all had the same reaction:

WOW...

I know other binoculars like my 10x50s and 11x80s provide larger scales and
brighter views. But I don't like mounting them and these darn roof prism
binoculars are just so comfortable to hold, shake free so easy to use and the
views are just great.

Jon