Some pretty excellent advice from evryone
thought i would mention my best quality binos are a pair of eschenbach 8x56's, I like that little bit more aperture trade off - still easy to hold - i paid way too much for them at the time ( nearly 400 i think?) - new - there are lots of much better ones out there - but the eschenbachs have proved very sturdy - have never gone out of collimation which is important in binos! i looked through a pair of $4000 leica compact binos in a shop once - it looked better than real life!! - nearly fell over - some sort of beer goggle affect? My 25x100's are a pair of cheap Kunming's which i bought for looking at bright binocular comets only really (and at which they are very very good at! low surface brightness objects benifit from the increased aperture and contrast (1.4x) -need good tripod tho - also very sturdy)- I have seen them as low as $500? And you only really need cheap full on colour correction coatings for looking at bright objects like the full moon really?
Kearn