Swarovski CTS 85 - the ultimate (expensive) travel scope?

[25585]

No diagonal but 85mm OG, good eyepieces and collapsible. Shock, waterproof, rubber armoured in a case. Takes zooms and prime eps. Is it a TV 85 beater (apart from the diagonal)?

https://www.cliftoncameras.co.uk/Swarovski-CTS-85

[jabeoo1]

Looks very interesting. 

[Alan White]

Looks very expensive!

[Doc]

Similar price to a Swarovski 85mm spotting scope.

Swarovski is quality.

[paul mc c]

7 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Looks very expensive!

Is very expensive.....

[mikeyj1]

where's the diamonds? 

[25585]

Roughly equivalent in price and lens to a Borg 90FL F4 draw tube https://www.firstlightoptics.com/borg-90fl-telescopes/borg-90fl-f4-drawtube-astrograph-ota-set.html

[MarsG76]

That is very expensive for something that looks like a toy, but the 85mm aperture makes it very interesting.

[Alma]

I wouldn’t reccomend this for astronomy use.  Swarovski only sell 2 eyepieces for their scopes nowadays - a 25-50x zoom and a 20-60x zoom.   Both eyepieces are excellent but are relatively narrow angle compared with many dedicated astronomy eyepieces.  Unlike astronomy gear there are no common fitting standards in spotting scopes and you will be limited to these 2 eyepieces only.

The magnification of these zooms of course is quite limiting for astronomy use .... at the 20x lowest mag you would need some form of tripod or at least a monopod to avoid the shakes however straight-through viewing won’t be pleasant without a diagonal, while the upper limit of 60x doesn’t really offer much scale for planetary/lunar use.  

The earlier suggestion of a Borg 90fl is a much better idea, or my personal recommendation for a travel scope - a Takahashi FC-76 DCU - both of these will sit quite happily on a lightweight photo tripod and video head and will provide much greater flexibility for stargazing use.