As I have spent more time with these binoculars (8x40 Action 8.2 Degrees), I am convinced my pair has a manufacturing defect. I noticed that the two barrels never really merge into a single circle when viewing through the binos.

Also, the very outer edge (say 10-15%) seems to have an artifact and that I believe is why stars look so blurry on the outside edge.

Or is this just a symptom of cheap binoculars?

The 'artifact' looks like (2) concentric rings with the outer ring being the edge of the field and then inner ring about 10% in from the outer ring. They appear translucent.