My Nikon Travelites are on their last leg, so I'm looking to replace them.
Are the Carson's optics glass? Sometimes in cheap optics, plastic is used to keep cost down. They work well in daylight but at night, a star test will produce halos and diffraction spikes. Have you tried the Carson's at night?
I prefer porro-prism glass's to roof prism designs for two reasons. 1) better light transmission in porro-prisms and 2) roof prism binos are trickier to make, thus making good one's expensive. I can usually work on (repair/collimate) porro-prism glass's but not roof prisms.

My astronomical binos are Fujinons and are about as good as it gets. Fujinon make some birders I'm interested in, as well as some travel binos. The Nikons have served me well but are not waterproof and the optics have slipped out of collimation (which don't seem to be repairable).


Interestingly....it's hard to go wrong with anything Rick Steves recommends...we've used his advice for years with never a regret.