I learned about the existence of these binos after receiving one of those emails that Amazon sends you with recommendations based on your previous searches, since I was looking for a pair of binos in order to start digging into astronomy. My initial search was for a product of a quality good enough as to do stargazing with a sharp view in low light conditions, and read a lot of descriptions and reviews on different brands.
When I read about these, I was completely seduced by the idea of being able to watch eclipses and planetary transits with the ease and convenience that a pair of handy and lightweight binoculars provide. My only worry was how good quality would be with these when it comes to purely stargazing, which was my main purpose for buying a pair of binos. So I asked the community whether these can be used to look at the Moon and the stars with a decent wieving quality.
I received a few replies saying yes, and one of them added that, living in a very light polluted area --- which is also my case ---, he could see more stars with the binos versus his own eyes. And that is definitely true. Living in a big city, where you rarely can see anything in the night sky other than a very few bright stars, Venus and Jupiter, I was amazed at how many more stars I could see, that is true and a fact. But when it comes to optics quality, I find they do not really excel, although I believe these were not intended to do so either.
Doing some research, I found out that there are, at least to my knowledge, three different qualities of optics. Those are, going from lower to higher quality respectively: coated, multi-coated and fully multi-coated glasses. These Meade EclipseView are at the lower end, being simply coated glasses. Also, now regarding prisms, there are two qualities, BAK-7 and BAK-4, the latter being better, and these have the BAK-7. Does that mean they are bad quality binos? Not at all, they have a very decent quality, but I decided I will buy an additional pair of binos more specifically suited for stargazing, since I concluded the light --- and atmospheric --- polluted sky of the big city where I live needs sharper optics for a better viewing experience.
The bottom line:
The positives to buy: A pair of lightweight binos with the distinctive feature of including solar filters for viewing the Sun and its phenomena anywhere, anytime. Solar filter sheets are tricky to use since they can be torn easily, and with these you forget about those "consumables" surely for many years to come, since binos are sturdy and look durable. These facts have made me keep them instead of returning them, even though my main purpose when I started looking for binos was not to look at the Sun, but at the night sky. Also, these are out of stock at Meade site, and I am not sure whether they will be marketed again, as they seem to have been conceived for the July 2017 eclipse. It is likely that, once sold out, there will rarely be a chance to buy a product of these characteristics at this price again, so these are a keeper to me. Also, unlike another reviewer, no collimation issues, so good Quality Control.
The negatives: Optics could be better, even though, undeniably, that would have implied a higher cost. Hence, if these are your only binoculars, you may find that, like me, you have to buy another pair of binos to better suit whichever your specific needs. Hello Amazon again!
Customers also viewed these products
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customer reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2019
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2017
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2019
For the price they are a great deal. If you want top tier binoculars then keep looking and prepare for shell out more $$$
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2017
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2020
