[Renato1 (Renato)]

The other morning at around 4.00am I noticed that Sagittarius was on the darker side of the sky of where I live. So I pulled out my Nikon 10x70 binoculars and had a a good look around the Messiers in the starfields - sharp stars from edge to edge. I thought "magnificent". I had paid quite a bit of money for those Nikons years ago, when they were extremely highly rated in a review by either Astronomy or S&T magazine.

I packed them away and was about to hit the sack when a thought occurred to me. I went and dug out my relatively inexpensive pair of Andrews 20X80 binoculars, attached them to a tripod, then went outside and examined the same area while hand holding the tripod.

My thoughts were that it was a little bit trickier locating the Messiers, but at the end of the day, the Andrews pair were night and day better than the Nikon pair in terms of the superb views they delivered.

I think there is a moral to this story - magazine reviewers can get carried away with technical excellence, and forget practical application.
Regards,
Renato