Celestron EclipSmart 10x25 Solar Binocular

These binoculars are great. You can look at the sun and actually see sunspots. These are a sturdy pair of binoculars definitely not a toy. I bought a second pair for another family member.

These binoculars, are everything I hoped for. Easy to use, bright and a good value

I got a bad pair that wasn't aligned/collimated at all (couldn't stare at the sun through both eyepieces at the same time), but Amazon replaced them in a timely manner, so no deductions there. The replacement isn't as bad, and I really wanted to love them, but I'm still having issues with collimation. Though not nearly as bad as the first pair, I still have a double image when looking through these, and it's especially apparent when comparing it to other binoculars.First, these seem to be nothing but regular binoculars with solar filters put inside them, in case you're thinking these are somehow specially engineered for looking at the sun (if they were, they wouldn't have such a wide focus range). I am glad I went with the 20x50's for the magnification as I was able to see six sunspots pretty clearly with giving me a wide field of view, but I had to do so with one eye closed due to the double vision in the replacement pair. I've gotta wonder since these were cheaper than the 12x50 at the time I purchased them if the 12x50 have better optics, because there's significant chromatic aberration in these (the red on the left and blue on the right edges of the sun due to the prism effect of light separating, which my cellphone pic shows, even if my picture isn't nearly as sharp as looking through these binoculars actually appears). Had these binoculars been engineered as true solar binoculars, this could be reduced since the sun is almost a fixed distance from Earth, and the optics in these could be optimized for a very narrow focal point of between 147 and 152 million km (or just fixed it at 149.6 million km). Instead, it's more likely they just took one of their standard binoculars off the shelf, in this case the $50 Celestron UpClose G2 20x50 Porro water-resistant Binoculars for sporting events, with its 4.2 rating and good for focusing on objects as close at 42 feet to infinity, threw a solar filter in it, and more than doubled the price.In the end, I was so bummed by the performance of these that I ended up purchasing an 8x8 inch solar filter sheet, and with cardboard from a cereal box and some duct tape I made my own filters for my Bushnell 10x42 H2O binoculars. Seeing the difference between the two, the collimation issues with the Celestron become glaringly obvious as the Bushnells just work like they're supposed to--the Celestrons do not. The image in the Celestrons also have that chromatic aberration that I'm not noticing in the Bushnells, and on top of that I find the image using the solar filter is more pleasing, a little orange hue to it, whereas the Celestron is more white. I also wonder if the orange of the filter paper isn't filtering out more light and is therefore more protective of my eyes. I would assume that the Celestrons protect my eyes just fine, but then again, I also assumed that a company that makes telescopes and other optics would make a decent pair of solar binoculars, and I was wrong about that. (full disclosure: I own two Celestron telescopes and several eyepieces and am very happy with them).But don't buy these. If you're happy with the binoculars you have, buy a solar filter sheet and some duct tape and make your own, or buy a good pair of binoculars and still do that--then you'll have a good pair of binoculars, too. I was able to cut the 8x8 sheet to use with my 10x42 Bushnells, a 12x50 monocular scope, a 77mm for my DLSR telephoto, and I still have a 4x4 inch square left over. The price of the sheets has gone up as we approach the April 2024 eclipse, but it's still a fraction of the price for these lousy Celestron binoculars.

Good Celestron quality I expected.

I bought these binoculars to watch the April 2024 solar eclipse. Overall, it's a well-made product. It's nice that it comes with a carrying case, lens/eyepiece covers, and a little booklet of instructions and eclipse info. The binoculars work as advertised in that you can safely look at the sun and even see sunspots, which is cool. My only complaint about the workmanship is that they arrived with the neck strap broken. (Not the most reassuring thing to see right out the box when you're trusting this product to keep your eyes safe.)But at the end of the day, watching the eclipse through the binoculars didn't turn out to be as amazing as I thought it would be. You're not missing out on much if you just watch through the ubiquitous cheap eclipse glasses. In fact, despite having dropped all this money on the binoculars, I found myself mostly just watching through the glasses. Finding the sun is a challenge with the binoculars, and then when you do find it, the tiny movements of your hands make the view bounce all over the place, which is very distracting. With the glasses, you just put them on and look up, and bam, there's the sun, perfectly steady.The main difference is that through the binoculars, the sun looks like a big white disk, while through the glasses, it looks like a smaller orange disk. To me, this difference wasn't worth the hassle of trying to find the sun and then watch it through a shaky view. Leading up to totality, the eclipse basically just looks like a disk with a bigger and bigger bite taken out of it, like a cookie. The size of the disk didn't make a huge difference to that experience.Maybe it would've been more worth it if I'd mounted it to a tripod so the view would've been steady and I wouldn't have had to keep spending so much time to find the sun. As it is, though, these probably aren't worth the money unless you want to watch sunspots or unless you're planning to travel to watch lots of solar eclipses. I took a star off for the broken neck strap because the rest of the stuff it's a manufacturing defect, but just something to keep in mind. Don't feel bad if you can't drop the money on these and are just watching through the standard cheap glasses.