High quality scope for night sky

iogearadam · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 4

Hello,
Thank you for this great forum.

I'm looking for a high quality spotting scope for stargazing only.
Actually I should say, looking for a powerful yet PORTABLE telescope that takes 1.25 eyepiece.

Frankly, just letting you know, I went to a small local store and tried Bushnell Elite 60x80mm (didn't like it much 'cause thought little dark for what I'm trying to do) and Yukon 6-100x100mm that was very very poor.

I've been searching and found Celestron C5 spotter ( http://www.opticsplanet.net/celestron-spotting-scope-spotter-52291.html ).
Even though it's a little big for my wanting but seems powerful.
Also heard about some Pentax but have no idea about them.

Can you recommend me small high quality scopes ?
Thank you in advance.

Jne_K · Site Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 5403

Hi

Quality on a spotting scope is very easy to determine. PRICE. No other optics is so directly influenced by price. There are, however, some scopes that are best buys in their price ranges and some that are specialty scopes that do not quite fit in with the rest of the pack. If you are looking for qulaity scopes that use 1.25" telescope eyepiecs, the Televues are at the top, followed by the Pentax spotting scopes, but then, I would go right to the Celestron Refractor 80ED if you are looking for a value. With the right diagonal and eyepiece, it is optically excellent and will hold its own with scopes costing twice as much. The diagonal and eyepieces supplied are marginal. Also good, but sometimes tough to get, are small APO refractors, such as the Meade 5000, the Celestron Onyx and some of the many fine refractors by Williams, Stellarvue and so on.
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iogearadam · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 4

Thank you for your recommendation.

I checked the Refractor 80ED and was too big for me !!
But I narrowed down my selection.. with these scopes.
Celestron C5 spotter, Pentax PF-65ED and Pentax PF-80ED.
Can you please compare those three scopes ?
How about C5 ? seems it should be most powerful since it is Schmidt-Cassegrain and the aperture is 5". Please correct me.

What eyepieces do you recommend using with Pentax for stargazing ?

Sorry for this novice question, can I use focul reducer with Pentax PFs?

BTW, would like to let you know that I'm getting a bigger telescope (perhaps CPC11 or somewhat similar) in 2 months. That's why I'm looking for a portable scope for this time.
If there isn't much gap in performance I would like to go with PF-65 cause it's most portable among above.

Thanks a lot.

Jne_K · Site Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 5403

Hi

The C5 is also going to be quite large. Not as long as the Refractor 80ED, but considerably wider and chunkier. It will, however, be the best of the group for strictly astronomy, by virute of its larger aperture, but definitely too large for carrying in the field.

However, the Pentax models will offer the best image quality in terms of contrast due to their excellent ED objectives. The 80ED has a focal lenght of 525mm and the 65, 390mm. To determine magnification with these, divide the focal lenght of the scope with the focal length of the eyepiece.

Magnification on any of these is as much a matter of the mount you use. Spotting scopes use camera tripods and camera trpods are always marginal when you get over 100x. If you want to use more than 100x effectively, go to a standard astronomical telescope with the appropriate mount.
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