Celestron c70

[happy-kat]

Decisions which to have bought, c70 or c90, one more powerful but significantly heavier.

The need was hand luggage friendly and out and about friendly, plus there is price.

With a pocketful of Amazon vouchers the c70 won as for £30 new it was worth a punt as they go for more than that second hand on ebay.

Duly arrived neatly packaged.

Tripod and 1.25 eyepiece adaptor included too.

The spotter comes in a nice soft carry case though it can't be used in it as some numpty did not design the zip opening big enough to reach the tripod mount thread.

The weight is just a smidge over 1 kilo with the supplied zoom eyepiece (which is fairly nastey).

Use has been only brief so far and on a camera tripod which handled it easy.

So the zoom eyepiece had me thinking I doofed this is going on ebay the view was low contrast murky and dim and worse when zoomed.

I had with me the 25mm ep that comes with a heritage 130p and a 1.6 barlow. Both magnifications completely different view, sharp bright and miles better image during daytime use looking at birds at the coast. Even though no viewfinder it is easy to get line of sight down the outside of the tube.

A white wading Egret against flat sparkly sea was a really nice image.

Had a brief cloudy look at the moon and whilst smaller and not as in your face as with the 130p it was still pleasing and detail were visible.

I will update this thread as I observe more.

Why this and not the 70mm travel scope, 'CA' as I knew there would be a fair bit of bright day time use.

[happy-kat]

Another brief use and I was a bit harsh the provided zoom lense is not that bad, not as good as an ep but still useable.

The tripod whilst very short has good control on the head and quite strong even though plastic and is very light.

[happy-kat]

So far had several day time uses including on a dull day and at 48x the image was much clearer and brighter then I had expected. Today I watched a heron catch a wrasse from about 1/3 of a mile awyay with good detail.

Still no night use opportunity, been in a dark sight location for over 10 days and cloudy had hoped to see ISON but fat chance.

Eye position is fairly critical even though eye relief is doable. Have been using a 25mm possl with 1.6 barlow.

Next want to make a camera support as too critical the lense placement to use afocal handheld.

So far not bad for £30.43!

[happy-kat]

Stinking cold so not been outside but doing what you shouldn't and stuck this scope on a window ledge above a wall with a Radiator well the moon was right there.

The supplied zoom eyepiece none zoomed gives a surprisingly good view with nice detail even if it is rather boiling.

Jupiter was ok but no point upping the magnification as boiling away though 3 moons could be made out.

On top of the heat rising have two street lamps outside this window one literally 20 feet away and at same level if a smidge higher so light polution could not be much worse!

[Naemeth]

Stinking cold so not been outside but doing what you shouldn't and stuck this scope on a window ledge above a wall with a Radiator well the moon was right there.

The supplied zoom eyepiece none zoomed gives a surprisingly good view with nice detail even if it is rather boiling.

Jupiter was ok but no point upping the magnification as boiling away though 3 moons could be made out.

On top of the heat rising have two street lamps outside this window one literally 20 feet away and at same level if a smidge higher so light polution could not be much worse!

Definitely set it up outside next time. I probably would've gone for the C90, but certainly not a waste at £30 .

[happy-kat]

Yes c90 would be better but £130 more and over twice the weight and bigger and not dust safe so the c30 won in more ways than one, and the c90 would not fit on the window ledge ;-)

It will be tried outside when my cold shifted.

Everyone knows about the Heritage 130p so thought I would share using this scope instead.

There is light reflection in the eyepiece barrel at times but can't yet say whether because using in a none ideal location or not.

[Naemeth]

Yes c90 would be better but £130 more and over twice the weight and bigger and not dust safe so the c30 won in more ways than one, and the c90 would not fit on the window ledge ;-)

It will be tried outside when my cold shifted.

Everyone knows about the Heritage 130p so thought I would share using this scope instead.

There is light reflection in the eyepiece barrel at times but can't yet say whether because using in a none ideal location or not.

It may well have been because you were indoors .