Celestron SkyMaster 20x80 Binoculars – High-Power Binoculars for Astronomy and Long-Range Terrestrial Viewing – Large Aperture with BaK-4 Prisms – Includes Tripod Adapter & Carrying Case

Upgraded my SkyMaster 15x70 binos to the 20x80 model. This review concerns astronomical use, especially as it relates to casual observation. I just returned from two evenings with it under the dark skies of WV's Monongahela National Forest 1) Field of view offers wide angle eye candy. 3.7 degrees with the feeling of expansiveness--even at 20x. I could place Orion's belt in one view; Orion's sword in another; The entire Pleiades (M45) in one glimpse; much of Kemble's Cascade; nearly all sections of the Veil Nebula complex; The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid Nebulae in one field; Can almost place M7 with M6 in Scorpius in the same field, also the Coathanger asterism fits nicely into the field of view. 2) Spectacular views offered of M7 near the Scorpion's tail, The Swan nebula (M17), Dumbbell Nebula (M27), a billowing Orion Nebula (M42), Pleiades (M45), Andromeda Galaxy (M31) with companion galaxies...can seem to infer some stars on the outskirts of globular clusters M13 (Hercules) and M22 (Sagittarius). Veil Nebula is breathtaking under dark sky (t5he western side resembles a fuzzy fish hook). Can see North American Nebula near Deneb at top of Cygnus. I returned to several of these again and again--so rewarding were the views. I set it up a week ago for a backyard star party and the Pleiades was really impressive for viewers as was the Perseus Double Cluster and Albireo double star. The Orion nebula is also magnificent. 3) Generous Eye Relief is best utilized by folding the eyecups back 4) Used a 30 year old aluminum camera tripod that is sturdy enough to hold the 20x80 with ease. How I found it effective was to sit in a wooden kitchen table chair with the tripod legs fully extended and tripod close in with bino eye cups folded back. My tripod has a shaft that can rise about 10 inches more so I used that incrementally as viewing angle was increased--not unlike a barber's chair raising or lowering. Ample eye relief coupled with the folded back eye cups and raised tripod slant the bino was attached to meant I could view objects 45 degrees up from the horizontal. Objects near vertical I could manage limited viewing by actually leaning back with binos and tripod legs laying across me. That's how I viewed the Veil Nebula. Be mindful of the weight before trying this!! It was OK for me but may not be for you. Test that carefully. The 20x80 mount is more robust than the attachment I used with the same tripod with the 15x70's. 5) Clarity of image was NOT sharp all the way to the edge. However, for the comparatively low price of the 20x80 I really can't complain about this as I'd pay much more for that level of optics. 6) I have an 11" SCT telescope. The 20x80 is a nice, satisfying casual alternative to setting up my larger scope and I had so much fun with it one evening I never bothered to set up my SCT. 7) These binos are HEAVY so a sturdy tripod is recommended. The 20x80 is significantly heavier than my 15x70 set. I can use each hand held on their own for limited viewing by gripping the large ends with each hand. 8) The moon is not excessively bright as it tends to be telescopically so you need not be overly concerned about temporary "blindness" from viewing the moon then switching to other stellar objects. Eye recovery is but momentary. 9) Did finally view Jupiter. The line up of the moons is more as one sees telescopically rather than with traditional binocular views. Be advised that surface brightness is so great one will likely NOT be able to the bands on Jupiter. Mars and Jupiter are definitely bright discs. haven't yet had a good look at Saturn as its currently near the sun in the sky.

I had done my research and been able to play with a friend's SkyMaster 20x80 Celestron binoculars for a few nights to see how well they met my needs. I wanted these as an alternative to hauling my heavy classic Celestron C-8 up into the hills over dirt roads (with washboards, ruts, all that fun stuff). These give me a lightweight alternative and work great with my heavier camera tripod. The package arrived from the UK a couple days early, which was awesome. The box looked like a cross between being re-used and having had some heavy-handed handling during transit. That was concerning, but the box inside that was in pristine condition and the actual Celestron box inside that was pristine as well. The binoculars came encased in a soft foam housing and my greatest fear, them getting knocked out of collimation during shipping, didn't happen. There were no collimation errors at all. I tested them in my in-city driveway over a few nights when we finally had clear skies. As others say, you can hand hold these, but you're going to quickly be reaching for your tripod to hold them. The strain on your arms builds up fast. Looking through them, the moon is fantastic and M31 is an impressive size. Saturn was basically a slightly larger dot than a star, and I could not make out any rings. That was expected, and I might be able to see a distortion caused to the dot by the rings at a dark sky site. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was a joy to view. All these views were nice and clear, once the binoculars were properly adjusted to my eyes and mounted on my tripod. The only downside I've encountered so far is that when they're on the tripod, anything near zenith is hard on the neck. My tripod gets the binoculars up to a comfortable height for an evening of viewing, but the steep angle for high overhead views gives one a crick in the neck. A set of 45 degree adapters for the eyepieces should take care of that, though. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Orion nebula, the Pleiades, and other DSOs as the year goes on. I realize these won't give me "as good a view" as my C8, obviously, but what I've seen so far tells me I made the right choice for what I wanted them for: a "lightweight" alternative to lugging my heavy C8 up in the hills. This way I can always have them there whenever I go out for astrophotography. Oh, and they're pretty decent for terrestrial observations, too.

THESE ARE AWESOME. WE LIVE ON A HILL WITH A BEAUTIFUL VIEW, AND WE LIKE CHECKING OUT THE MOUNTAINS

I read through most of the reviews here and in other online forums and here is my take on all of it. The guys in the dedicated astronomy forums are going to tell you these binoculars are junk but then they are also going to suggest that what you really need is something you might have to take a second mortgage out on your home to buy. What this product is - an $89 pair of Chinese binoculars - you should obviously be aware of and I give it four stars because you can't beat the price with a stick. Mine arrived on time and I found them to be well collimated (aligned) If you take care not to bang them around or drop them they should stay that way but it is fairly easy to do a decent conditional collimation on them if necessary, instructions on how to do that can be found online with a Google search. The advantages of these over a telescope is that they can easily be used for terrestrial viewing as well as star gazing. The disadvantages are that they are pretty big and heavy and with 20x magnification you really need to use a tripod but viewing any celestial object higher than about 30 degrees above the horizon with a tripod is going to be rather uncomfortable due to the angle. This is why telescopes have that 45 or 90 degree eyepiece..I also found that with 20x the field of view is pretty narrow to the point that you almost need a spotting scope to get these things aimed at what you want to see. When looking at the moon for instance you are going to physically see it moving across the field of view like the second hand of a clock. For this reason I ordered a heavy duty Celestron alt/azim tripod with slow motion controls because a light weight aluminum camera tripod is not quite up to the task of supporting these monsters. Funny but the tripod cost ten bucks more than the binoculars. So far I have used these to see amazing details on a rising late night half Moon, the moons around Jupiter, the Orion Nebula, Seven Sisters and a few other things. This was from my back yard with quite a bit of light pollution so I wasn't able to find Andromeda galaxy but I'm sure in a dark space I'll be able to get a stunning view. They are also good for terrestrial viewing and especially at night, they bring in a lot of light but you can't focus on anything closer than maybe 100 yards or so. So if you think you're maybe interested in astronomy I'd recommend these binoculars. I can understand Celestron's philosophy in offering such an inexpensive product, kind of like a gateway drug. You'll certainly want to upgrade in the future but it's better than spending $500 on a telescope and then discovering that meh, you're not really into it and it just sits in the corner taking up space in the spare bedroom next to the jogging machine with all the dirty laundry hanging on it.

I was comparing the 25x70mm to 20x80mm and I love the views of the 20x80mm better little more sharper and little more light gathering. If ya looking for long range then these are the better choice. Now if ya have more to spend then I would have a look at the 25x100mm. I also want to mention that in this range 60mm to 100mm that the weight is going up and you’ll want to mount on a tripod as you will not get very good steady views. I have included 3 photos of what you can expect for views. The first photo is what I can see without any aid of binoculars. The second pic is with 7x50mm binoculars. And the 3rd pic is with the 20x80mm binoculars. At some point I’m gonna include a pic of 12x60mm binoculars as a mid range to my collection of binoculars.

I ordered the 20x80 Celestron and tried them in fairly rural desert skies along with other binoculars I own. Here's the deal, the price is low because the quality is average. These are nice binoculars for the price, but not super high quality. I'm speaking more about astronomical night use. These would be fine during the day or for terrestrial use. Despite other reviews claiming these are great for astronomy, there simply is better out there for just a little more money. If you are looking at the moon or bright planets, these are going to work fine as it's hard to tell astronomical quality on these bright objects. However the true quality comes out when looking for dimmer objects like star clusters which is what most amateur stargazers eventually do. This is when you'll see the Celestron won't measure up to higher quality binoculars. Binoculars with FULLY multi-coated optics and the highest quality glass prisms produce sharper and brighter images. This is also evident during daytime viewing but it's startlingly apparent when looking at the night sky. You will see similar images with these binoculars, but they will be darker and less vibrant than a higher quality pair if you're using them for backyard astronomy. Honestly my smaller 15x70 Oberwerk LW for less money give a better experience for night viewing.

These binoculars are good entry level in to Astronomy.The magnification was to my liking.The color and texture rule. THe stabiliy is better when you use a tripod.

I was deciding between the Celestron SkyMaster 20x80 Binoculars and the Celestron SkyMaster Giant 15x70 Binoculars with Tripod Adapter . I am glad I got the 20X80s. I was afraid they would be too heavy and have too narrow a field of view. No problem on either count. The 15X70s would have been a good choice too, but I got a used (Like New) pair from Amazon Warehouse. They were described as like new and they were not exaggerating. They were new! The box was still sealed by Celestron. Some of the reviews commented that the collimation was off. If you are going to own a really nice set of binoculars, you need to learn to collimate them. Mine came very well collimated but in the first week my tripod leg collapsed and they hit the ground. It was in the grass, so no major damage, but they did need to be recollimated. I was getting double views of everything. I only had to tweak two of the collimation screws and they were back to perfect collimation. The views were merged and the exit pupils were perfectly round. There is a lot of information out there concerning collimation, some good and some not so good. I recommend going to a forum called cloudy nights. They have a knowledgeable bunch of people there. As far as the binoculars themselves, I don't find them too heavy to hold by hand, but a tripod is a major help for steady views. The views are clear and crisp. They can pick up Jupiter's moons, but I haven't noticed any banding. Saturn's rings were a little harder to see, I couldn't quite make them out. I need to wait for a better night; we've had a little fog lately. I did notice some chromatic aberration while viewing the moon as it was quite bright. With stars and planets, I was very pleased with the contrast. The build and fit is impressive although the tripod mount, on first impression, seemed a little cheap looking. It is a brushed or painted aluminum. Mechanically it seems sound enough, but a chrome finish steel would have been a better choice, but that would have added to the weight. The caps fit somewhat snug inside the barrels but they don't seem to me that they will be very secure for long, only time will tell. Of course you are buying binoculars primarily for the optics, but those optics must be protected, so good caps are important. Speaking of protection, that brings us to the carrying case. Seriously, why did Celestron even waste their time on this? The one I got is a flimsy, unpadded cloth sack. Use it to carry your lunch in or better yet, just pitch it. Get a good padded metal or plastic case. I reused the foam from the Celestron box that the binoculars were in to line a plastic case and it works great, the foam is already cut to the proper shape to securely hold the binoculars. To sum up, I would recommend buying these for terrestrial or celestial viewing, but do get a better case and a tripod.