[johnno]

Hi All,
Anybody that knows me, also knows I love viewing the night, and Day sky with binoculars.
I use them during the day for looking at Birds,aircraft and just general scenery,and of course I love their wide fields of view for some of the brighter nightime objects.
I recently bought a pair of 11x56 binos off A.O.E,and mentioned to my wife I would like a lighter pair for primarily daytime use,and when we travel away,I could then use them at night also.
As Fathers day is nearing,she suggested I pick out what I wanted,and she would buy them for me for an early fathers day present.
I decided on a pair of 10x42 waterproof fully multicoated bak-4 roof prism binos.
I must admit,I have allways been a bit leery of roof prism binos,especially for Astronomy.
I emailed Raff at A.O.E and had all my questions answered quickly,and as before,the invitation to return them if I was not completely happy was included.
The Binos arrived yesterday,and I checked them out during the day,They showed surprisingly little field curvature,almost nil chromatic aberration,(they are triplets),and compared to my Nikon 9x25s there is not a lot of difference. and as I am a night owl,I checked them on the moon,early this am,along with a few stars.
The moon was sharp and clear and if there was any Chromatic Aberration, I could not see it,usually you can see a green or yellow tinge around the bright area.
Stars were pinpoints,with very little flaring, even on the bright ones,and edge of field sharpness was better than most of the other 18 or so pairs of binoculars I own.
I must admit I did have a couple of minor gripes.

The tripod socket plastic plug,had snapped off inside the tripod thread,no big deal,I can remove it easily if I am going to use a tripod,(not likely on only 10x42 binos).
Very slight miscollimation,which I feel is quite within tolerences anyway,certainly did not impair the viewing or give me any eye strain problems.
I decided to keep them, Even though Raff was quite happy to take them back,I felt,as they performed extremely well,it was just not worth it.

Two things I really liked,was the twist up eyecups,which lock into place at the top,and secondly, the Click stop diopter setting that stays put.
If I could afford the high end binos,I would buy them over the cheaper chinese types in a heartbeat,however the last 2 pairs I have bought from A.O.E are advertised as,and seem to be the best of the Chinese imports.
I do not have any affilliation with A.O.E,or Chinese binocular Manufacturers,whatsoever.
I simply believe,if you get a good product and good service, at a good price,PASS IT ON.
Regards.John