Full disclosure: After purchasing a ROXANT Grip Scope (reviewed separately and purchased w/o discount based on specs and reviews) I was a contacted by Roxant to see if I was interested in evaluating their Mini Monocular. Since I was already pleased with the Grip Scope, I was happy to get another similar but smaller monocular. A driving factor for me here is size and weight since I already have some good, but large and heavy binoculars.The Mini is really small, about the size of my two middle finders. It's really lightweight (2oz including case). The optics seem quite good to my eyes. I have not noticed distortion and they are easy to focus. These will be a permanent addition to my hiking pack. They are so small and lightweight, there is no reason to no have them. They have already proven great for getting a better look at other peaks, down the valley and birds when stopped. At $20 they are inexpensive for optically good lenses. I pay almost as much for the optically good be "cheap" sunglasses ($15-$20).Pros: good lenses. enough power to be useful (8x), inexpensive, so light and small you forget they are in your pocket.Cons or Enhancements: Field of view could be wider, but it's good enough. Small objective will not do as well as light fades, but I hike mostly in daylight. Continuous focus at 7x would be perfect but probably would cost a lot more.I am rating this product 5 STARS because if I lost it, I would buy another one without hesitating!My daughters live near Disney in Orlando. They are always watching shows in the park from far away. I am probably going to get them these. They will be able to see the stage as if they were in front.

I somewhat recently sold my telescope, as I wasn't getting much use out of it. The pacific northwest is not exactly a friendly place for sky gazing due to all the rain, and especially at my house where I have a very small slice of open sky due to all the trees. I needed something small, ultra-portable, and with a wide field of view. Enter these.With 70mm lenses and 15x magnification, they will pull in distant objects very nicely. They're big, but not so huge they're unwieldy. If you have weak hands and wrists, prolonged usage will probably become uncomfortable. Even if you're in great shape and strong, after a while they will still start taking their toll. The nice thing is they come with a tripod mount, so you can thread them onto one and offload all that weight for extended viewing.They function just like any other binoculars I've owned. They adjust for the width of your eyes, and also have a diopter adjustment so you can use them without glasses. And of course there's an adjustment knob for focus. All of these, especially the focus knob, are butter smooth when you adjust them. They eyecups are comfortable, made of soft rubber. The case is a standard run of the mill pouch with a cover that drapes over the top and fastens with velcro.The only thing I can ding these on is there is a bit of noticeable chromatic aberration. You'll see it when you're focused on a somewhat close object, like the branch of a tree, against a bright cloudy sky. The pink and green "shadows" indicative of aberration is there, but not distracting, However, at under $70 at the time of this review, I don't think anyone could expect optical performance of much pricier glass.So yes, I would recommend these for checking out the heavens at night, or for nature during the day. You get a lot of performance for the money.

I like it. I needed something I could take to Afghanistan and it wouldn't bother me if I had to leave it behind. I'm just beginning in astronomy, so You may assume I know absolutely nothing about telescopes. If you want a professional review you need to look elsewhere. That being said, I am having a lot of fun with this telescope.I got it while I was home to make sure it was worth taking with me at all. My wife and I live in Canyon Lake, TX, on the south side of the lake. We have a church parking lot, well lit, bordering our backyard, but the night sky is still fairly usable. By that I mean if you look up you can see the occasional shooting star or satellite flitting by. So I took the scope out on a clear night and looked at Jupiter. Using the eyepieces that came with the scope I was able to make out Jupiter as a disc with a couple of lines across it, along with four of it's moons as bright pinpoints of light.. I thought that was pretty cool. I next pointed the scope at Mars. Looked like a small red blob with no detail and no moons. Not as cool as Jupiter. Then I pointed it at Saturn. I could easily make out the a ring around the planet, but no moons. Still pretty cool. So I stuck it in the suitcase and brought it to Afghanistan. I brought the stand with me, but even in my backyard with no wind I could tell I wouldn't be using it. I already had another tripod in Kabul I was using with binoculars.In Afghanistan I am in Kabul next to the airport. Way more light and a lot more dust than my backyard at home. I also bought a 2X Barlow and an adjustable 8mm-24mm eyepiece. Using all of it, I can make out Jupiter as a larger disc but I can just barely make out a band if the conditions are just right. Mars looks like a larger pinkish blob, still no moons. Saturn is actually even more cool, but again still no moons. All in all I'm having a good time with this toy, and you probably will, too. Have fun!

This is one of those things you just can't pass up. The price is excellent and you get an amazing product. Compared to other monocular it is larger, but it is not too large when compared to binoculars. This was one of the few monocular that had a 50mm lens and an easy adjustment which are both factors in this monocular's size. I tried many other monocular at the store and I wasn't too impressed. I almost bought a 10x25 Vortex but I noticed too much shake, I didn't like the two hand focus adjustment, and the low light was minimal. This Polaris Explorer is night and day over others, even the 8x36 Vortex model that cost more.It is possible to adjust the knob with one hand but using two hands reduces the shake while spinning the knob. I do not notice much shake if I look through while holding with one hand and I think this is due to the comfortable grip. The low light capability is fantastic! 45 minutes after sunset I was still able to see objects clearly. If it is too dark to see something with your naked eye than this optics won't be picking it up either, but it will pick up objects with ease at night time in my neighbor hood but everyone has street lights and front door lights. The Polaris Explorer is amazing for star gazing at night. It will pick up stars that you can not see with your naked eye. I live in the city and I was only able to see a hand full of stars, but after looking through this I saw hundreds of hidden stars.I tested the near distance capability and I got clear images at exactly 6 ft. I also went 300 yards away from my house and I could see my front door clearly through this optic. The adjust knob is excellent. When changing distances from near to several hundreds of yards it will take several turns of the knob but when looking at objects within about 50 yards of each other there isn't much spin needed. The adjustment allows for very crisp and clear images. The clarity of this optic is extremely brilliant!The Polaris Explorer is a BAK4 prism. It does not show this anywhere that I could see online and I was surprised as it is very key in a good optic. Unfortunately I tested the waterproof capability already as it was raining while I was using it during a deer hunt, but noticed no water entry and the anti fogging works very well.The tripod that is included is small but it is solid. I have a cheap tripod and it falls over easily due to it being all plastic. The tripod that is included is constructed out of metal and is heavier. It is pretty sturdy for being placed on a table. The tripod can also be used as a grip to reduce the shake even more. The optic is made in the USA and is constructed very well. The rubber coating is durable and does not scratch easily. The case is a little large for my liking to be on my belt so I took apart my cheap plastic tripod and made a lanyard so I can carry it around my neck. The smaller lens cap is free from attachment and I have almost lost it a couple of times so I have attached it with a string and has worked well. This optic is shock resistant. I have used it almost daily and carry it on me and it still looks new. I was on the fence about this purchase for some time. Vortex has similar models with a good reputation. The Orion 10x42 is another good optic that was tempting, but some of the reviews steered me away. The Polaris website is very, very minimal and I was not able to find much about this optic besides the info on amazon. My worry was what would I do if I needed to claim a warranty if the company no longer existed. On amazon they advertise a lifetime, no hassle warranty, and I contacted them and they confirmed that there is a no hassle warranty, no questions asked for the first monocular, but the second one and beyond has a 12 month warranty to prevent abuse of the warranty. Vortex has them here because there warranty from what I understand is infinite and transferable. I like having the lifetime warranty as a piece of mind, but I still handle the optic with care. This optic will last a lifetime if you take care of it and don't drop it and keep the lens caps on when not in use. A lot of websites and blogs say that the 12x power is way too much to handle for a mono or binocular. It may be the case for other brands but not for the Polaris Explorer. My friends and family that uses this optic falls in love with it with one look through it. It produces an amazingly clear image and with a large lens diameter of 50mm; a large field of view is preserved. This is the best optic on the market today. I checked Bass Pro Shop, Dick's Sporting Goods, Academy, Sports Authority, local optic shops, and countless articles online. Plus you can't beat the price for what you get.Also, all optics with the multi-coated lenses are more sensitive than just a standard glass lens. When cleaning the lens, do not use your shirt or an eye glasses cleaning cloth. They make special material that will not scratch or damage the multi coated lense. The user manual will expand on this.

Light weight and sturdy. Item is well made out of good material. The screen is bright and clear. Binocular is the objective and the light source is below it. This is not an optical device and it does not operate without batteries. You need 3 AA size batteries to operate it. On the side it has ports for TV connection, SD memory card and a mini USB B port. You can connect the USB B port to a power bank and the device turns on. you can see, take pictures and video during day time but the night vision does not activate. In order to activate the night vision you need the AA batteries. This is truly weird to me, the item than would have been far more reliable and useful if it accepted outer power instead of being alkaline battery reliant.It is not easy to figure out a good dark spot in the city any more. Although I tried it in the toilet and have seen that it is functional, I also took it to the nearby park and chose the darkest spot possible. The distance it can show and the clarity of the picture was amazing. It was impressive to me.Zoom function does seem to be optical. You can do up to 3 times optical zoom and during the day time it does not ruin the picture. I really couldn't decide if the picture quality changes during night time when you zoom in. Device selects IR level itself as per the amount of light and the distance of the object you are setting the focus to. There are no buttons or digital menu to let you influence that.Capability reduces greatly if you are behind a glass. No, possibly you can't drive with this.The rubber band covering the viewing screen fits to the eye completely and light of the screen does not leak to your face.The plastic cover on the objective piece has a tiny opening on it which is covered by a reddish glass. if you don't remove this cover the night vision doesn't work. But during day time conditions this cover needs to be in place or the colors get strange and too bright/exaggerated.8 GB memory card included in the package. Even that is plenty capacity for storing pictures and videos. I think that you will run out of battery before storage space for pictures.The bag it comes with is good quality. It does not have any pockets to keep its cable or extra batteries when you are out. That is slightly disappointing in my opinion.Sure, the resolution is not that good to take pictures and may be this is not the most suitable device to lay in the wilderness and take award winning photographs but for emergency situations, road trip, camping or few nights at the cabin type of holiday, this item is a big must like keeping a jumper cable in the car.I wouldn't call this a toy at all. It is fully functional and would be a vital help when needed. I surely will keep this in my emergency luggage and take with me to any road trip. If I knew this technology performs this good, I surely would have bought it long ago. Overall, it is a five star device and I highly recommend it.

I love our 70 mm travel telescope, which I bought for my wife when we were traveling to Arizona to visit Kitt Peak observatories; we wanted something to take out in the desert with us, and it had to be packable and fit in an airplane's overhead bins. This telescope turned out to be a delightful addition to our observing equipment, which includes a Celestron 130 mm reflector, a 60 mm refractor I had as a kid, a vintage orange-tube Celestron C-90, and assorted binoculars.I replaced the much-too-light tripod right away with a sturdier one. It's main virtue was that it collapsed to a small enough size to fit into the cool backpack Celestron includes with the 'scope; I found an equally compact tripod from MeFoto that is very sturdy and has smoother movement than the one the telescope came with, but the new tripod had a ball head, which is not of much use for astronomy. So I bought a Manfrotto pan head, which together with the MeFoto tripod makes for a rock-solid mount and smooth-as-silk aiming. I also wasn't crazy about the plastic 45-degree diagonal, so I replaced that with a new, higher-quality one from Celestron, and bought a 90-degree diagonal as well for those objects that are too high in the sky for the 45-degree prism.We have found that this setup serves us well, and not only for travel: we keep it close at hand for quick observing sessions in our backyard, whe we don't have -- or want to spend -- the time it takes to set up our other equipment. The optics are quite good, revealing Saturn's rings and Jupiter's colored bands with terrific clarity. It's easy to use, economical, and just an enjoyable companion to have around. True, I spent way more on a replacement tripod than the telescope cost, but for travel and convenience, this telescope cannot be beat.

I love the mini scope and don't really have any qualms with it. I live in Virginia right by the Potomac river. I walk to the river almost daily with my dog and husband and have always wanted something to bring with to check out the birds along the water. In the past I have schlepped my husband's old binoculars with us but they don't focus very well and they are super cumbersome -- considering I often have a dog leash and a thermos of tea in my hands as well. I ordered the mini scope so that I could have it in my pocket or purse at all times to check out birds whenever I like. So far, I really enjoy having it! I used it today and we saw a bunch of species that I originally would have just thought were regular mallard ducks from afar, but in fact were two varieties of Mergansers!! (ok it's exciting for someone who likes birds, haha). My only wish for the mini scope is that it could see just a tiiiiiny bit farther. I'm a painter and birds are often my subject matter, so seeing their markings even closer would be lovely. But! It's a mini scope, so I can't really ask more of it since its lightweight and something I will happily throw in my purse or pocket since it's so lightweight. In the future I'll consider getting another Roxant product that perhaps will let me creep on those birds even closer from time to time.I definitely would consider giving one as a gift, as my whole family consists of bird nerds. The price is super reasonable and it is built very nicely. I also appreciate it coming with a little cleaning cloth. Overall I'm very happy with my purchase and I'm stoked to use it on all of my walks.

Bought this over a month ago to field trial before giving as Christmas gift to daughter (wants to bird watch and duck hunt with dad). Am pleasantly surprised at the quality and performance. As an outdoorsman I have very high-end optics (Zeiss, Leupold, Nikon) so I know good optic performance. While I can’t speak to ruggedness or endurance of this Aurosports monocular (only time will tell), I will attest to its optical performance. It is bright and crisp throughout it’s power range. There is a bit of minor bleeding or blur (some may not even notice) at extreme outer edges of scope but I don’t find that to be a problem since object in view will most always be centered. This is just a NICE. LITTLE. UNIT.I saw some reviews with questions/confusion about ability to focus and effective use on targets close-in. The unit DOES focus, just learn how. (Think: retractable telescopic “pirate scope” and you’ll figure it out.) And it will handle targets as close as 6-7 yards in (10x). And 30x max zoom is just as clear (note at 30x you’ll need surgeon-stable hands or a tripod to stabilize).Don’t get your heart set on perfect directions, they lack. Christmas morning I had both my 20-something kids try the scope, independently, no directions. They both figured out how to extend, adjust 10x-30x power, and focus. Ok, they didn’t notice the eye cup. But that’s just an option to use or not (rotates CCW to extend the eye cup). They both used binoculars before so those basics of use apply here as well. And....was a factor in their ability to quickly figure-out the unit.This unit is more than worth the price. I’d buy it again without hesitation.