Francis Marion wrote in message:
Being brand new to this group I hope I'm not beating a dead horse by
asking
what the general consensus is as far as the Canon Image Stabilized
binoculars is.

If there is an FAQ that would answer this, could someone point me in the
right direction for that?

I know they are expensive, besides that, what is the image quality like?
Good for binocular astronomy?

Francis,

I have 'em and love them dearly! They are truly spectacular astro-binos. I
got my girlfriend a pair of the Canon 10x30 ISs and they're wonderful, too!
The 10x30s are unbelievably small and light, but give tremendous views of
stars - edge to edge of a 66º apparent field of view. We each had Celestron
Ultima binos before these - hers were the 8x56s and mine were the 9x63s.
Very nice binos, but no match for the Canon ISs. I recommend the Canons
without the slightest reservation. I don't find the weight of the 15x50s
prohibitive at all...but the 10x30s truly are so light that you forget
you're holding them up to your eyes. It's almost like you suddenly have 10x
eyes with 30mm objectives. I'll give you an example...are you familiar with
Alberio? the double star in Cygnus with gold and blue stars so close
together - actually about 35 arcseconds apart - they appear as one star and
appear as a single star in the ISs before the Image Stabilizer is turned on.
But AFTER the IS button is pressed, each of the components is clearly
resolved - and that's in 10x hand held binos! Even better in the 15x50s.
In the words of Bob Berman, author and contributor to 'Astronomy' magazine:
"Don't try them unless you're prepared to buy them - you'll sell your kids
to get a pair." Truer words were never printed. Did I mention that I
really like them?! I have a wonderful pair of 20x80s and all supporting
hardware - heavy tripod and super-duper parallelogram mount. They probably
will never see the dark of night again.

Clear skies to you and yours,
Dave Jessie