Celestron EclipSmart 10x25 Solar Binocular

We used these during the 10/14 eclipse and they were absolutely the Goldilocks fit for us.They are affordable, light-weight but well constructed, and very much gave a far superior view to any of the glasses or other filters that everyone else had. We had no trouble at all carrying these around for ~3hours.We viewed the October 2023 eclipse from the San Antonio Zoo, and while we were nearly the only folks I saw with something more than cheap glasses... we were the only ones who didn't regret not having these binocs by the end. At least a dozen random people asked to take a turn and had nothing but good things to say about them.We did find that you really do need to open/close the distance to get dialed in for your eyes/face, but once you know to expect that shift it's easy to quickly readjust. Finding the sun can be a challenge, but if you start with your eyes looking right below it, bring them up, THEN look at the sun, it's quite easy. Alternately, physically point at the sun then bring the binocs up; the brain figures that out fast with HEC.Visual quality was great and we were even able to see sun spots!For the 2024 April eclipse we're buying another (bigger) pair and will not waste any time with the old paper glasses.Update:For the 2024 eclipse these were a smashing hit. A couple family members bought them too. Consistent quality and zero regrets.

I like these compact, seemingly well-made binoculars. There is a knack to using them: sealing out the ambient light, acquiring the sun through them, holding them steady, and above all bringing them to and from your eyes ONLY WHEN YOU'RE LOOKING AWAY from the sun. I imagine it'd be easy to damage your vision, not to mention ruining the eclipse experience, if you took these away from your eyes while staring directly into the sun.Some caveats: it was difficult or impossible for me to use with my eyeglasses because of the need to seal the eyecups from ambient light. Also, it was not so easy to find the sun through them, or to hold them steady for viewing. Some reviewers have stated the solar filters can be removed but I'd be afraid to use them for their intended purpose after being modified or tampered with, and I have a nice pair of Nikons for that purpose so I wouldn't think it would serve much purpose to try to alter the solar blocking capability. Be aware that they are useless for any purpose other than solar viewing; they're so dark that you see only blackness when not looking directly at the sun.Finally, there is no tripod mount, or in my view much reason to try to use these with a tripod because of the need to seal off ambient light before raising them to view the sun - some sort of steadying brace is very necessary but a tripod would be tough to make work.

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.