Just before Christmas, Canadian Tire was running a special on Celestron 15 x 70 Skymaster binoculars, regular price $149.99 marked down to $49.99. Couldn't believe my eyes. Debated with myself for 24 hours, is this for real? Read reviews online, most said they were good binocs. Sooo...off I went and got myself a pair. I am quite pleased with them. They had a cheezy little plastic adapter to mount them on a tripod, as you simply cannot handhold these steady for star viewing. I set about building a sturdy mount plate instead, took a piece of hardwood, added a Tbolt for the quick release plate, stitched together some plastic padding to help reduce vibration, and added one inch wide strapping with a good dose of velcro. I adjusted the binocs to my eye width and strapped them to the plate, put them on the tripod and headed out for an hour long session to gawk at the sky. I am impressed. I can see the moons of Jupiter, the 4 stars in the Orion Nebula, and Pleaiades fills the whole viewing frame. Only problem is, now that I have my new toy, we're going to have crappy cloudy/rainy weather for the next 5 days. *sigh* just classic. Can't wait to take these out birding some nice day.
