Price: £329.99
Aperture: 50mm, 5.8° field of view
Weight: 820g
Supplier: Optical Hardware
Telephone: 01226 203275
Website: www.opticalhardware.co.uk
The Ostara Prophecy roof prism binoculars come in a useful soft carry case with an internal pocket for extras.
They are rubber coated to give a good firm grip.
The front caps are rubber and are attached to the barrels so that they can’t be lost.
The twist-up eyecups were smooth to operate, while the eyepiece caps were quite a snug fit.
As the gap between the barrels is more restricted with roof prism binoculars, you’ll need a different adaptor to attach them to a tripod.
The field of view test with Altair was good: the star was pin-sharp across the inner 75 per cent of the 5.8° view, dropping off with slight distortion towards the edges.
This is, however, a larger field of view than most similar binoculars.
We were pleased with the smooth dioptre adjustment, while the interpupillary range was also reasonable for roof prism binoculars.
Albireo was just about split in our resolution test and, turning to Jupiter, we could see all four Galilean moons clearly.
Touring the Milky Way, we were able to pick out all our test objects, including the Veil Nebula in Cygnus and Messiers 16, 17 and 8.
The open cluster M39 was crisp, as was the Double Cluster in Perseus.
We did notice some ghosting on bright subjects such as the star Vega and Jupiter, but this did not seem to detract from most other, fainter objects.
Galaxies M81 and 82 were also well seen along with the nebula M27, so overall the Prophecy could deliver good views, albeit at a not-inconsiderable price.
