Telescope Reviews: Pentax 20x60 close but no cigar!

I picked up the Pentax 20x60 binos yesterday. After reading about them, I thought that I might like them better than my Orion 15x70’s. I also compared them to my Orion 72mm Eon. If you want the summary, the Pentax binos are going back today. They are not bad, but I did not see enough advantages to keep them.

Disclaimer: I am reporting on a single example of each unit and what my eyes saw. Your observations with the same equipment may be different. Also, along the front range of the Rockies, the turbulence off the mountains makes most objects look like they are underwater. That really affects the views, especially on planets or the moon.

What I liked: Easy to handhold in a pinch. Nice dark background that makes the stars pop. Smaller size makes it easy to balance. 3D look of star fields when compared to Eon.

What I did not like: FOV – I figure if an unsophisticated observer like me can see a difference, it is really there. During the day it was not an issue, but at night it was noticeable. Honestly, this is a minor nit. CA on Jupiter – see report. Bottom line, nothing that differentiated the binos enough to make me keep them.

Jupiter: The Orion 15x70’s showed flaring from Jupiter. I never did see just a round disk and any detail was missing. Pentax 20x60’s. Some folks have seen some detail such as banding, but I may have seen a glimpse of a band, but I could never say for sure. The CA was much worse than the Orions and that really surprised me. At least is was a disk with no flaring. Eon showed the sharpest view (Pentax 21mm for 20x and Ultima 30mm for 15x). No obvious CA in focus. (Inside and outside of focus was either green or red. Not a big deal because stars and planets inside or outside of focus are pretty boring!) At 15x no banding, but at 20 power I could just make out the bands at time. Of course the big advantage to the Eon is that I could pop in an old Nagler 9mm and be sure of the bands. Then I went to a 3-6mm Nagler to really show the planet. You can’t do that with the above binos!

Pleiades: Orion 15x70’s nice view. Lots of surrounding stars. Pentax 20x60’s nice black background. Stars really popped. More of a 3d appearance than the 15x70’s and no 3d from the Eon. Eon, more of a grey background like the Orion 15x70s, but no matter how well I focused the 20x60’s and readjusted the diopter, I could see more stars in the Eon.

Double Cluster: About the same as the Pleiades. More of a washed out grey background with the Eon and 15x70’s. Better 3d appearance with the 20x60’s. More stars visible or easier to see in the Eon. The 15x70’s had a better FOV that I found more appealing than the narrower 20x60 binos.

M31: 15x70’s nice little bright blob. There is no other way to describe it. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not see M32 (I am a little embarrassed to admit I am not sure which companion galaxy is which. I am calling the small bright galaxy M32 and M110 the more diffuse galaxy, I am sure I will be corrected quickly if I am wrong J ). M110 was not visible in any bino/scope. 20x60’s The best view of M31 was in these binos. With the darker background I was able to see a larger disk than I could with the other two. With averted vision, it appeared to be even bigger. I could not get that affect with the other two. M32 was easy to see. Eon, try as I might, with the grey background I just could not see as much as with the 20x60’s. Not even using my imagination! M32 was easy to see. When I popped in the Ultima 30 for 15x, I could see M32 with averted vision for sure, that was not possible in the 15x70’s.

The Pentax 20x60’s are nice. With M31 it had the best view, but there was not enough of an advantage to make me want to keep the Pentax binos. I did not want to stay up late enough to see the Orion nebula, I expect the Pentax binos would have done a better job there too. Of course with the Eon I can bump up the power and equal or exceed the Pentax binos. The Eon is also not a lot bulkier than the Pentax binos, so no big advantage even for saving space on a trip. In fact, the Eon fits into my camera bag much easier than the Pentax would leaving more room for my camera and an extra lense.

Not a bad bino at all, but not enough of an advantage to want to keep them.

Mike