Telescope Reviews: Got my Skymaster's

Let me start off with explaining I am a complete noob so I am not sure if this is all helpfull, but I hope some of it is.
I just purchased celestron 15x70 skymaster binoculars. The first thing I did was go out and look at some stuff during the day. I looked at my neighbors roof, and Ham radio antenna to use as a horiz. and vert reference to check collimation. I did not find and double images and everything seemed to line up perfectly. I am amazed at how much detial I see for terrestrial use. I did notice that the very edges of the FOV was fuzzy, but it was such a small portion of the FOV that I do not notice it unless I am trying to see it. Next I looked at a street light and my porch light with them. with the street light I got some major haloing, but that is to be expected. The light was blinding (dumb idea on my part) so if I am not worried about haloing at that level of light since my eyes could not take it anyhow. The street light was yellow and the color looked correct, when I placed the streetlight just to the right side out of the FOV I got some minimal reflection off of it from the left side of the lenses. When looking at my porch light I got a pretty small halo around it and it looked more yellow then when looking at the area by eye. But I did not get a reflection problem when placing the light just out of the FOV.
Next I tried to copy what they Did on Oberwerk.com to compare the Oberwerks to brand "B" which looks like burgess. when I looked at the reflections off a compact flourescent bulb I got a very beautiful dark green reflection off the primary as well as a slightly blue reflection off the front side of the lense. The reflection off the prism was hard to tell if it was very slightly blue or white and just turned slightly blue by going through the lens. (I also have nothing blue in the room so I know it was not gathering some reflections of another surface).However, I think the blue was from going back through the lens. When I looked through the eyeholes. I saw at least two green reflections as well as some white reflection, but I am not sure if I was looking at the correct angle to test the eyepeice lenses or if i was seeing something else. I will try to take some pictures so everyone can see for them selves, and hopefully get some more trained eyes to look at it. I concluded they did not multicoat every interface like Oberwerks does, but they coated at least as many if not a few more then the Burgess.

I then took them out again and was trying to focus on a cloud that moved and I got a good shot of a very bright jupiter, but no moons (about half and hour before sun down) I was surprised at how large it looked. I went back out about 10 min. after sun down I could not see any stars by eye except a very very faint vega, but could make out many when just scanning through the sky sorry I do not know magnitudes well enough to say what mag. I was seeing. I then went back to vega and got worried I was seeing double do to a collimation error, but after resting and I stopped shaking the double vision went away. Unfortunately it has not been getting dark enough here (47°N) until way after my bed time so I did not go looking for any messier objects. The darkest it has been I was only able to see two stars in hercules, vega and arcturus (sp??) and a few others barely by eye. When looking at the stars they all looked to be the same color that I saw by eye.

I also tested the tripod adapter by afixing it to a table and trying to flex it. It was very sturdy, however the binos flexed a little, but the amount of force I was putting on them (not enough to brake anything or go out of the plastic region on any of the materials) would have been enough to move and flex any tripod I have ever seen or used, so I don't think they will be weak link in the chain. All my observations were done hand holding which I can do for about 45sec. and then need to rest to avoid shaking. I hope to get some dark sky viewing in tonight.

I did get some focus drifting, but I think that is more a function of pushing the eyepeices forward while trying to handhold these monsters. The diopter seting on the right eye was enough for me to not need my glasses, but I seemed to need to readjust it quite a bit (not sure why though). I may just try and tape it.

All in all I am happy with my purchase. these binos are more then good enough for me and at less then $70 a real good value for the money. The Obies are probably a better set, but I think the difference in quality would be for the most part lost on me.
If I get interest in the thread I will post more info soon. after getting a chance to look at darkskys.

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