I awoke last night at 2 AM and decided to break out the new binoculars and look along the Milky Way after the Moon had set. I am in an RV park near Wickenburg, Arizona, about 60 miles from metropolitan Phoenix. There are no street lights in the part, only a few porch lights among the inhabitants. I would rate the transparency as 6 out of 10, lots of detail in the Milky Way with the naked eye and stars to about 6th magnitude easily.

There were a few clouds to the south so I observed in Scutum and north from there. The dark lanes on the Scutum Star Cloud show excellent contrast and M 11 is a compact bright spot. In Ophiuchus the big cluster IC 4665 is easily resolved, I counted 22 stars and averted vision shows a few more and a fuzzy background.

In Vulpecula, Col 399 is the Coathanger and it showed all its glory, the bright stars stand out very nicely and there is a background of fainter stars that is easy to see. The Dumbell Nebula is easy to spot and I saw it as an irregularly round bright dot in a rich field of view.

The North American Nebula in Cygnus is easy and the shape stands out quite well. The dark lane that creates the "West Coast" shows excellent contrast with the glow of the nebula itself. M 39 is also easily resolved and the 19 stars resolved stand out prominently with the dark lanes that cut through this part of the Milky Way.

Overall, I am very pleased with these binoculars and really look forward to getting out under truly dark skies with them in the future. They are light weight, have a sharp field of view with excellent contrast and they hold focus with no trouble. I also like the twist up eye cups.

Clear skies to us all;
Steve Coe