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Review of Strathspey 20x90 binoculars by Jon Webdale

After much consideration on the purchase of large binoculars, and almost holding off waiting for the 25x100 Strathspeys to come back into stock, I can say I am very happy with the purchase of the 20x90 that arrived last week.

They are really quite manageable on my sturdy tripod and not as heavy as I thought they would be.

I have included a brief first light review that I hope to improve on or add to when I get the binos under some dark skies.

My appetite for binocular astronomy has been whet again, and all being well, a second purchase of Strathspeys in the near future seems certain! ???.. 10x50 marines, 20x60 15x70 so much choice!

The "Strathspey" 20x90's arrived safely by courier and were well packaged. I was fortunate to see first light on the day of arrival. These binoculars have been purchased purely for astronomical viewing on a tripod. Even with the gibbous moon low on the southern horizon I wanted to see what they were capable of.

The fully multi-coated optics and prisms were doing a great job seeing through the extra moonlight sky glow. Unfortunately I no longer own to compare, but I've previously owned what I believed to have been good quality 20x80 and 15x70 binoculars from separate manufactures about 10 years ago. Though I don't recall them providing that WoW! factor that the Strathspeys have done for me.

Is it the extra aperture, or is it the improved broadband multi coatings? I believe it's probably a bit of both, but they are a great set of optics in the Strathspeys and at a fair price.

Used from my back garden. (Magnitude 4.5 stars seen at best) I set them up on a sturdy tripod, and for me to sit on a comfortable chair. Even with a gibbous moon that was low in the southern horizon I was still impressed at the views I managed to get through the 20x90's.

I viewed a wide selection of different objects including the Andromeda Galaxy, the Perseus Double Cluster, M 81 & M 82 Galaxies.M13 globular cluster in Hercules, Albireo, the very colourful contrasting double star, at the head of Cygnus the swan. I have to say, they were all fantastic to view with both eyes and with nice pinpoint star fields. I even found M27, (Dumbbell nebula) and made out M57, (Ring nebula) that showed them in the moonlit sky.

Later I got to view M51 and the very difficult M33 galaxies when the moon had all but set. These two galaxies have always been tricky objects from my back garden, even through a 250mm reflector telescope and I have never been able to see them through my 100mm refractor telescope.

Of course the moon was a great view in the 20x90's and showed no Chromatic aberration and plenty of detail.

Jupiter even at its highest point, was still fairly low in the southern sky but was still seen as a nice pale disk with one, and definite hints of two equatorial bands showing along with the fine pinpoint Galilean moons. I would expect much improved views if Jupiter was not so low on the southern horizon.

But these binos have been purchased for views of all types of deep sky objects and wide double stars. I look forward to another outing with them in the near future under darker skies. First light and they certainly appear to be very promising and best of all for me; I have re-discovered my love and pleasure in visual astronomy with binoculars.