Choosing a spotting scope for shooting, and some astronomy

roberti11 · Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 2

I have been considering

Celestron c130
Meade etx125

Why the significant price difference? is it just the extra objectives?
I will be spotting on the rifle range from 300-800 yards but also would like to look at the moon, and planets with the kids, is the celestron significantly inferior to the meade to justify this price diff?

opticsplanet.com · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:09 am Post subject:

Hi

You're on the right track with either scope in that both are good choices as "crossover scopes" for day and night use. Both have large apertures and both use telescope eyepieces. You may find resolution to fall a little short for 800 yard work (I prefer ED refractors here), but they will certainly handle the lion's share of what you want to do at a reasonable price.

The Meade is more expensive for a couple of reasons. First, the optics are made in the US, though the rest of the scope is made in China. The C130 is all Chinese. Second, you get three eyepieces with the Meade (26mm/73x; 15mm/127x; 9.7mm/196x, 40mm/47.5x) and only one with the C130.
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