Questions on 8×40 Mariner

I am new to viewing astronomical objects and I have not bought any astronomical binoculars before. I am wondering if those binoculars could be too LARGE for me, as I am a petite female at 5’3″ tall.  Also, am a (young) senior citizen nearing 67 years, so I was wondering if I will have any problem seeing things with my smaller exit pupils.  The web says this is a good price for a good pair of binoculars, but it never hurts to ask if you ever have any sales or discounts on them. Thanks for you help and advice.

You probably saw the SPACE.COM review for the 8×40 Mariner?  That article made it a best-seller for us, and it’s hard to keep it in stock.  But we have 30 other models, and SPACE.COM only looked at two of them.  So often times, other models are more appropriate for customers, depending on how they intend to use them.  The 8×40 Mariner does offer a very wide 8.4 degree FOV (field of view).  But in your case, you may find the 8×40 Mariner to be rather bulky and heavy for the  relatively-small 40mm objective size.  It also has a minimum IPD (inter-pupillary distance) of 60mm, which is not narrow enough for some customers, especially women.
For the same weight as the 8×40 Mariner, you could have the 8×56 LW, which gathers much more light.  While the 7mm exit pupils may be more than your dark-adapted eyes can take in, it’s likely that you could use more than the 8×40’s 5mm- resulting in an overall brighter image.  The larger exit pupils are also much more forgiving with eye placement.  It has a minimum IPD of 58mm, so works well for more customers than the Mariner.  It’s also just $99.
At the other end of the price scale, we have our finest bird-watching binocular, the 8×42 Sport ED ($299).  It also gathers more light than the 8×40 Mariner, yet is much smaller and lighter weight.  You’d find this model much easier to handle than the 8×40 Mariner.  It has an even wider IPD range, and goes down to 57mm.  The 8.1 degree FOV is very close to the Mariner.  Because it uses ED glass (which is what makes it considerably more expensive), chromatic aberration (also called “false color”) is greatly minimized, making it an excellent binocular for astronomy, as well as bird-watching.  When I’m traveling light, the 8×42 Sport ED is the only binocular I need to bring.
To answer your last question, our products never go on sale (except for discontinued items).  Whenever you’re ready to buy, you’ll know you’re getting our best price.  Let me know if you have any other questions.
Regards,
Kevin Busarow