Perhaps it's because I am legally blind in one eye that I have always had a special interest in monoculars:
The Orion 10x42 at 50 bucks on sale turned out to be excellent. Multicoatings, comfortable to hold, and razor sharp, both in use and star tested with an auxillary scope (use a finder or another monocular to look thru the scope or bino under test, multiply the mags). About a 60 degree apparent field.
The Celestron Oceana 8x42 was a disapointment. While sharp, the compass takes up too much field of view so unless you're a sailor it doesn't work well for astronomy. Incredibly it is advertised as having a 10.5 degree field or 84 apparent. I wasn't expecting a Nagler, but theoretically it could have moved the compass further to the edge opening up the field. The box and the scope itself say 7 degree which it what it looks like. Optics planet didn't know what I was talking about and referred me to Celestron who hasn't answered my email so its going back.
Coming up the 16x40 Tasco roof at 20 bucks and the 15x32 with a naked porro cluster at 10 bucks, ebay denizens with shipping included direct from Taiwan. How bad can they be? Stay tuned.
The Orion 10x42 at 50 bucks on sale turned out to be excellent. Multicoatings, comfortable to hold, and razor sharp, both in use and star tested with an auxillary scope (use a finder or another monocular to look thru the scope or bino under test, multiply the mags). About a 60 degree apparent field.
The Celestron Oceana 8x42 was a disapointment. While sharp, the compass takes up too much field of view so unless you're a sailor it doesn't work well for astronomy. Incredibly it is advertised as having a 10.5 degree field or 84 apparent. I wasn't expecting a Nagler, but theoretically it could have moved the compass further to the edge opening up the field. The box and the scope itself say 7 degree which it what it looks like. Optics planet didn't know what I was talking about and referred me to Celestron who hasn't answered my email so its going back.
Coming up the 16x40 Tasco roof at 20 bucks and the 15x32 with a naked porro cluster at 10 bucks, ebay denizens with shipping included direct from Taiwan. How bad can they be? Stay tuned.
"--Granted, that's a worse case scenario. The destruction might in fact be ... limited to our own galaxy."