New spotter and 'Thank you FLO.'

[ollypenrice]

Having just received a generous £50 voucher as runner up in the last IKI observatory processing challenge, I opted to put it towards a new spotter. My elderly Nikon fieldscope never made it from the UK when I moved to France 18 years ago so I've been using a  TeleVue Pronto for wildlife. (We have a good selection from the front door here.) With fixed FL EPs and considerable bulk this is a cumbersome solution for a quick grab-and-look and the view, I suspect, is compromised by a rather basic erecting prism I use.

Wanting something I wouldn't be frightened to leave in the car, I went for this very budget instrument. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/hawke-spotting-scopes/hawke-vantage-20-60x60-spotting-scope.html

FLO's website worked sweetly, the few days' quoted delay was just that, the website found my voucher automatically and Steve patiently answered my silly question about how the post-Brexit pricing arrangements worked. And, hey presto, it arrived this morning. Packaging was as good or better than anything I can remember and knocks Amazon into a cocked hat. So a big thanks to FLO for the prize and the excellent service.

In time-honoured manner we had another arrival just before the 'scope...

Here's the instrument.

The slightly springy tripod is included, as is a tough bag and a Pelicase-like box of excellent quality. The tripod will be fine for leaving in the car and using if I forget my ballhead photo tripod. But what about the 'scope? How good can it be for the price? My regular test is a mobile phone mast about 150 metres away, on which assorted plaques have text of different sizes. Hawke versus TeleVue (with indifferent prism) : despite looking through a veil of snowflakes the Hawke won. Seriously. The smallest text was clearer than I've ever seen it in the Pronto without snow. The Hawke's zoom EP gives a smaller FOV than the TV's Radian, naturally, but the Hawke's is a zoom, which is a huge benefit in a fieldscope. And it's so light and handy that it will, I'm sure, get lots of use.

In a nutshell, outstandingly good value.

Olly

 

 

[Louis D]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

My regular test is a mobile phone mast about 150 metres away

Interesting.  In the US, we refer to them as cell towers.

Congrats on the win and new spotting scope.

Edited April 16, 2021 by Louis D