15x70 LW Binocular

Very nice quality. The views are really nice. They came perfectly collimated, with a spec card signed by the owner of Oberwerk, and dated 3 days ago. They are large, but fairly light for their size. Even at 15X I am able to hand hold them and get good views. Rock steady on my tripod. Highly recommended in this price range. I'd say mid to lower upper level quality for a low level price.

(1) They can be handheld for an hour, but better with the tripod mount of course.(2) The magnification really helps in my light polluted area to darken the sky and bring out the details of the Messier objects.(3) They are sharp, I could clearly see M8 the Lagoon Nebula and M20 the Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius even though they were low on the horizon.(4) The 4.4 degree field of view put both M8 and M20 in the same view. And makes it easy to find objects.(5) Came with a bag and this was unexpected.(6) Much better than my 8x42 Minolta binoculars for astronomy.(7) Cheap at $149.

I now have two 15x70 bins. One by a competitor and another is my now beloved Oberwerks. Perhaps the competitor's is better if you like seeing TWO SEPARATE IMAGES of any object viewed or like collimating...and maybe I was just lucky with these O's but as far as I can tell so far collimation is perfect ( as far as this newbie can tell ).Two nights ago I trained them barehanded at the hazy Alabama sky near as close to a major city as Alabama has, and WOW, out from the haze popped a myriad of crisp stars and I saw the Orion Nebula for the first time--perhaps a bit small at 15x and a lot shakey due to my not having that same 15x braced right, but unmistakably there. Very cool. I'm looking forward to some really clear nights and to making proper use of a monopod with these beautiful nocs.THANK YOU OBERWERK!

The build and feel are excellent and they work well for terrestrial use. But they are just not powerful enough to look at anything in the sky but the moon. The planets, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter just look like larger smudges of light with no definition, even when using a tripod. One reviewer said that he was able to pick out the moons of Jupiter but I couldn't really make out Jupiter itself as anything other than a distant patch of undefined light. Perhaps I was expecting too much. But if stargazing is your goal, I'd recommend putting the money toward a good 8-inch telescope rather than purchasing these.

Like most in this category and size they are fairly heavy and hard to stablize when holding. Had some trouble focusing and getting a single image, but once I got used to them they seemed to work as expected. I would recommend these as a lower end set of Astronomy binoculars with better quality then you would get with the lower priced binoculars you could find in this category. These binoculars are sturdy and well built and feel like you are holding a quality item that you would expect to cost more.

These are lightweight binoculars with quality optics at an affordable price. They're great for times when setting up a telescope is not an option. I debated about getting a slightly heavier, slightly longer pair and am glad I didn't, because holding these still is a challenge. Bracing against a building or tree helps, and practice helps, too. It's easy to have them with me in the car or on a walk.

These are great. Stars resolve as crisp pinpoints in each eye, starfields are a rich bounty of celestial delights, the moon is a contrasty black and white cookie of wonder. Even Andromeda appears; an incandescent blur of otherworldly wonder... These really are great and the price is just right. I highly recommend them.

Then you should reconsider— spend a little more and get these. Our Skymasters were not ready to use out of the box and we spent two hours reading forum posts about how to collimate them. We finally gave up and I think it was because of a mechanical defect. The Oberwerks arrived PERFECTLY set up and the very first thing my wife saw when looking out the window with them was Jupiter and its four moons… then she turned to the Pleiades and it appears as just an absolutely amazing riot of blue stars everywhere.Oberwerks customer service is terrific. The threaded brass mount that the tripod adapter (I feel it's crucial that you get this part and use a tripod) screws into was stripped but customer service figured out who I was and had the item shipped before I could even check my email for a response.Skymasters are inexpensive but in my mind not such a good deal— save your money just a little bit longer and get these instead.