celestron binos are they any good?

Does any own, or have any views on the quality of Celestron binoculars? I
am thinking about buying a pair of 25x100's and was wondering whether they
are worth the money.
Thanks for any help.
Mark

You mean Skymasters ?
I was wondering about those too...
Price is cheap.
ROland Herrera

"MFR" wrote in message
...
Does any own, or have any views on the quality of Celestron binoculars? I
am thinking about buying a pair of 25x100's and was wondering whether they
are worth the money.
Thanks for any help.
Mark

"MFR" wrote in message
...
Does any own, or have any views on the quality of Celestron binoculars? I
am thinking about buying a pair of 25x100's and was wondering whether they
are worth the money.
Thanks for any help.
Mark

I have been quite pleased with Celestron Ultima 8x40 and 9x63 binoculars.
They are not terribly ruggedly built (indeed, my 8x40s are no more, after a
drop onto a concrete floor), but they have very good optics for the price,
and with reasonable care they'll last a long time.

MFR wrote:
Does any own, or have any views on the quality of Celestron
binoculars? I am thinking about buying a pair of 25x100's and was
wondering whether they are worth the money.
Thanks for any help.
Mark

I have a pair of the 11x80's. The finish is very good and they've stood up
to to the last 10 years of general wear and tear very well. The optical
quality is acceptable given their cost. They are fine for sweeping the rich
star fields of the Milky Way, large nebulae (especially so when coupled with
OIII or UHC filters) and open clusters. Whilst I'm not a variable star
observer, I'd have thought they'd be pretty good for these too.

They aren't terribly good on the planets. I also have a pair of 20 year old
8x30 Zeiss Jenoptems that plainly showed Saturn as elliptical (in the
correct orientation, I might add) during the occultatation last year. It
wasn't seen as such in the 11x80's even with the resolution increase one
might have expected given the large 80mm objectives. Casually following the
phases of Venus is a breeze with the Zeiss's, but not with the Celestrons.
The Moon is tack-sharp in the Zeiss's but noticeably softer in the
Celestrons.

One inevitable drawback of course with all big binoculars is that they
really *must* be mounted, so I'd factor into your budget a non-trivial sum
for a decent mount, either a tripod or a parallelogram-style one. Having
used both, I prefer the latter, but they can be downright dangerous where
you have people milling around, like at star parties, or if you have small
children.

Whether the 25x100's are worth it really depends on what you intend to use
them for, and as you are silent on this point, it's impossible to be more
specific. At this particular price point, you might consider a short tube
refractor, which will allow you to vary magnification, whilst still being
just as portable and being rather easier to resell if you need to;
second-user short tube refractors being more in demand than big binoculars.

As always, YMMV.

Regards
Chef!