Celestron 71008 SkyMaster 25x70mm Porro Prism Binoculars with Multi-Coated Lens, BaK-4 Prism Glass and Carry Case, Black

I ordered this pair of binoculars for viewing images across a lake we camp beside and for viewing stars in the night sky. I also wanted a pair like this for a tripod because it's impossible to view things at extreme distance with anything not on a tripod. I was not disappointed when these showed up at my door and I rate them 5 stars across the board for what I was looking for in a pair of extreme magnification binoculars. Too heavy and too big to carry around on a trail looking occasionally at a bird or two, a waste of money for that purpose, these binoculars require a tripod for any good views to be appreciated. Sure it has a strap for around your neck but you'll soon realize the strap is meant to hold the eyepiece so you don't lose it, not to carry the binoculars. If you carry these around your neck on a trail you will damage them, they are heavy and large. Also, with high performance magnification using quality lenses set with precision means these binoculars are extra vulnerable to bumps and bangs.I find the build to be exceptional. They used metal throughout the construction.I'm not a lenses expert but with an object lense of 70mm, lots of light enters the binoculars producing bright images. The magnification of 25x is crisp and clear also.I'm pleased with this pair of binoculars. If you order a pair expect to use a tripod for any decent viewing experience.

I originally gave these four stars because the focus has play in it. I bumped them up to 5 stars because of the low price and the fantastic astronomical views. They stay in the focus you put them in, but the play occurs only during adjustment. My 16x50 is much better for daytime sight seeing.1. The eyepiece lens is 23mm, vs 18mm for my Nikon Aculon 16x50, 16mm for my Celestron 10x50, and 13mm for my Tasco 7x35. Despite this, they have the same eye relief as the smaller binoculars, and also a moderately smaller apparent field of view.2. I followed the exit pupil, drew a triangle, and quickly and accurately measured the apparent field of view of the Celestron 25x70 to be only 57.5 degrees, and that is the maximum no matter where your eye is. My Nikon's are 61 degrees, my Celestron 10x50 is 60 degrees, and my Tascos are 58 degrees. Visual observation confirms these math measurements.3. They are noticeably heavier than my other binos, but not a lot.4. They are easy to hand hold very steady in the day time, without resting my elbows on anything. At night it is much better to have something to brace my elbows on.5. They look like they are good quality, other than the thin strap.6. They are 10.4 inches long, and 8 inches wide.7. There depth of focus is less than that of lower powered binoculars, so I really have to adjust them as I aim around at stuff terrestrially at different distances. These are better for astronomy than for birding. My 10x and lower did not need to be adjusted much unless I looked at something really close. My 16x is in between, but still pretty forgiving.8. The focus is smooth but has a short lag, and requires diopter adjustment of the right eye to compensate for the lag. In cold weather, the focus wheel is tighter than any of my other binos, but still reasonable enough to turn.9. I am a bit near sighted, so I get a closer near focus at around 50 or 60 feet instead of the advertised 75 ft. My nikons near focus at 18 ft, not their advertised 28 ft.As many other reviewers already said, the eyepiece barrels seem too big around, and pinch my nose if I try to get closer to the eyepiece. However, if I carefully measure the interpupilary distance, I can place them so I see the full field of view without the pinch. It just does not come as naturally as with my 10x50. I separated them to see if getting one eye closer would give a bigger field of view, but it did not. I guess how close I get is close enough. It just feels weird them being that far out on my nose and making that third point of contact like that. Edit: next day: I'm getting used to the new feeling.The correct place to hold these binoculars is by the barrels in front of the prisms. That is how to get steadier views. Better yet, slouch down in a chair and put your elbows on the arm rests. Then all you'll see is your heart beat.I looked at a distant light, and compared its size to the Nikon's 16x. I find it very believable the Celestrons are 25x.The field of view is not as wide as advertised. The apparent field of view is 57.4 degrees, not 61. The belt of Orion just barely fits in the view. The moon is 30% of the view. The true field of view is 2.4 degrees, not the advertised 2.7 degrees.The arms of the eyepiece adjuster also have some wiggle in them causing a 1/4 inch delay when turning the adjuster wheel. I have had to re-adjust the right diopter even when I did not touch the center wheel, indicating it might be moving a bit. But it does not take long to get back into focus. There is also a flare visible off to the side of the exit pupil, though I don't see it during astronomy.Despite these flaws, I can't subtract a star at only $70 shipped. These binoculars are a league above my 10x50 for astronomical viewing, at least in terms of looking at individual targets. A telescope has many advantages, but these are grab and go. However, to see the phase of Venus, you need to stop down the aperture and sit down to brace your view.-------------------------I easily saw the correct shape of the Orion nebula on a half moon when my 10x50 could see nothing.I could see the dark side of the half moon, whereas my 10x50 could only see the bright side. My 16x50 also saw the dark side.Jupiter looks much bigger in the 25x70, but I may need to reduce the aperture to see the stripes. I can see bands on Jupiter 114mm f8 Newtonian telescope at 28x, but I can't see bands at 25x in the binoculars.The Pleiades look much better in the 25x70 than in the telescope or my other binoculars.The double cluster in Perseus is clearly visible in the 25x70, and looks tiny with an almost stellar core in my 10x50.Andromeda, M31, looks better, with M32 and M110 noticeable by it, and very hard to see in my 10x50.I can see a tiny ring around Saturn at 28x in my telescope, but at 25x, I sometimes see a ring around Saturn and sometimes I don't. On the day that I could see a ring, my 16x50 detected ears.I can see M13 and other globular clusters as small fuzzy balls. I could find them in my 16x, but smaller. In my 10x, I can locate most of them, but they look like stars. Maybe I can detect a little fuzz on M13. In my 7x, I can't locate most of them, but I can see M13 and maybe a few others, though I don't remember.All of my observing was hand held, unbraced.I could point them at whatever I wanted and hit my targets just fine. I had trouble hitting Andromeda right away because I could not see it naked eye.M82 and M81 are easy to identify in my 25x70 as I sweep over them. I can see the cigar shape of M82 in my 16x50 too, though I can't find either one in my 10x50.I can see a mountain range on the moon in the 25x70 when my elbows are braced. I've not yet found it in my 16x50.Airplanes look bigger but take longer to find in my 25x70.At 25x, you can't tell where you are in the sky from the star orientations. You just have to point and look, and you know where you are when you see the object you are looking for. At 16x, I can pan around from bright star to bright star and figure out where I am by memory. At 10x, I can see some bright stars in the same field of view, but have to pan for others. And at 7x, you can easily see where you are.I actually think my view of M31 was more enjoyable in a 15x70 than in these 25x70, though I know the Orion nebula is better at 25x. It keeps getter better even at 60x.M33 can be located at lower power, but the 25x70 gave the best view, giving maybe a hint of spiral structure.

Have had these binoculars for about a month now so I could be sure of my rating. I would have loved to give these bino's a 5 star rating but I'm disappointed in two or three areas. The 25x magnification is great but the clarity of the image left me a little disappointed. The images are just not as sharp and clear as I would have hoped for and expected. The images are just a little fuzzy (especially at full distance) no matter how carefully you try to focus the images. The focusing is very touchy/sensitive but with a little practice, you can get used to it. I bought these to look at the ocean from my living room window and just wish the images were as sharp and clear as my lower magnification bino's. My other disappointment is that the color of the images I see thru the bino's are not as bright as I see them with my own eyes or with my other bino's. The colors seem faded or washed out. Not sure if this has to do with the fuzziness of the images. Only other disappointment is the supplied tripod adapter setup that comes with the bino's. The bino's are held to the adapter by one screw which is fine but doesn't hold them firmly enough. The way it attaches to the bino make it extremely prone to wobbling. I bought a very good sturdy tripod just for these bino's but it doesn't seem to matter. The tripod is solid and steady, as is the adapter mount supplied with the bino's but the bino's wobble on the adapter. It can take anywhere from 5 to 7 seconds for the wobble to settle out so you can see what ever image you are looking at. Part of the problem might be that the attachment point to the bino's is not at a balance point. The attachment point is very near the focusing ring, thus making the bino's very front heavy. I found much better luck using these bino's at night to look at the moon, stars and International Space Station. The moon looked incredible but would have looked even better if the clarity was sharper. Not really sure one can see the "rings of Saturn" as some claim to be able to with these binos. I tried looking at Venus but all I saw was just a bigger bright white dot in the sky...lol All I can say is that for the price of these bino's, it's not a bad deal overall. I plan to keep these bino's and use them as a spare if and when I can find a better set of bino's with better sharpness and clarity. For the price, I would certainly recommend them to someone on a tight budget. For $77 you can't go wrong. Hope this helps.

These things are very clear and crisp. I would recommend a tripod with these though because you get such a magnification that it's hard to keep it steady. So putting it on a tripod keeps it very stable so the viewing is not shaking. Because like I said with such a magnification you can see every little shake of your hand. Good product would recommend.