Spotting Scopes

[skir]

This forum seemed to be the closest for this topic so hope I'm in the right place.

A friend of a relative has asked me to look at a spotting scope they have with a view to selling via eBay or other means.

Now I know nothing about spotting scopes, which is slightly less than I know about telescopes!

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First of all are these any use in astronomy? As if it could be of use then I might make her an offer.

The scope in question is a kowa prominar ed ts-614. From what I can find about it online it looks like it was pretty good in its time. There is also a rather well used velbon victory 650 tripod with it.

Peoples thoughts welcome........

[cantab]

Can they be used for astronomy? Yes. Would I buy one for astronomy? Not new, I'd be paying for stuff I don't need like weatherproofing, and not getting stuff I'd like like a 90-degree diagonal.

But as you mention, a quick Google reveals this model should have excellent optics.

I'd evaluate it like I would any scope: How much (if any) CA can you see on bright stars, how far to the edge of the field is the view sharp, how do planets and DSOs compare to other scopes of similar aperture, etc.

[skir]

Would a spotting scope be of any use in addition to a scope?

[rowan46]

As a grab and go spotters are fine and for a while I looked at getting one as a main scope. Fortunately I had a friend who had a good one and was allowed to borrow his, If you need to be very portable they are ok except not all take astro eyepieces, some of the ones that do don't take the full range as far as I know none take 2" and some of the wide angle 1.1/4 show prism edges in the fov consequently you don't get the full experience. And on very bright objects eg the moon, jupiter there can be ghosting from the prism.the better the scope the less ghosting (kowa have a good rep for spotters). The final clincher is the eyepiece position 45 degree or straight through, neither are ideal for astronomy and not all spotters can take diagonals. If I had one and had nothing else I would use one for astronomy but its a last resort not a first choice.

[E621Keith]

Spotting scopes makes good grab and go scope. I used to own a Pentax PF80EDA, it was extremely light (1.6kg) and the optics are reasonable. The scope cooled down extremely quickly and I often used it while waiting for the astro scope to cool down.

However, would I get one specifically for astronomy? Probably not. The prism in spotting scope can reduce transmission, contrast and introduce aberration. Also it had very limited focus travel, so some eyepiece won't reach focus in it. As Rowan46 mention, the 45deg angle isn't quite enough for astronomy. In summary, you will be paying for features you don't need and some of those 'must have' features for terrestrial use actually degrades the scope's performance for astronomy.

Since my use is 100% astronomy, I eventually replaced the Pentax spotting scope with an equally light Borg 77EDII for grab and go.

If you are 100% astronomy, a ED80 will serve you better. However, if you plan to use the scope for astronomy and terrestrial use then I'd go for the spotting scope. Those water proof, internal focus and correct image orientation features are very important for terrestrial use.

[GaryM]

Hi I used a Celestron Ultima 80-45 angled scope [20-60 x zoom] for a short while along with some 15x70 bins before jumping to my first scope. I had some pleasing views especially the moon, M42 and Jupiter all of which really motivated me to want to see more.

The 45 degree eye-piece did make it difficult at locate objects at times.

As mentioned above I would not buy new if considering moving to a Telescope. I did but then was able to sell on easily enough and I got what I initially wanted out of it and accepted the loss on resale.

[skir]

Ok, thanks for all your views. I think I will sell it on for her as it turns out it was a pretty expensive piece of kit when it was bought.