100mm celestronRegal spotting scope

[Ali87]

So see some reviews and stuff can you actually see Saturn's rings and Jupiter's weather bands with this spotting scope

[Giles_B]

Have you got links to the reviews?

I think one of my colleagues has one of these (I'd need to check with her). If so, it did show a surprising amount detail given its size. I guess its appeal is if you want something that is very portable, can be set up in moments and money is no object (it's not far short of £1000). I suspect that there are other competitive options at the price.

[Peter Drew]

I would think that you could, 25x + is usually enough to see Saturn's rings and Jupiter's two main cloud belts but the images will be very small.      🙂

[NGC 1502]

1 hour ago, Ali87 said:

So see some reviews and stuff can you actually see Saturn's rings and Jupiter's weather bands with this spotting scope

 

Welcome to SGL👍
 

It depends what you mean by “can you actually see Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s weather bands”.  At very low power you can “see them” but how well you can see them is a different question.

A spotting scope used for astronomy will be a compromise.  This could work for a “one scope does it all” solution, depending on your needs.

Best to tread carefully, do lots of research.  Perhaps you may be better off with a 2 scope solution, one dedicated to astronomy, the other a daytime spotter.

Only you can decide what’s best for your needs.  It’s quite tough to make decisions for others.

All the best in your choice, Ed.

 

[Louis D]

A much cheaper ED option to dip you toes in the ED spotting scope water is the Svbony SV406P.  Even an 80mm ED spotter will "show" Saturn's rings and some banding on Jupiter along with its Galilean moons.

Spotting scopes may have limits on what eyepieces you can use with them.  Both the Celestron and Svbony take 1.25" eyepieces natively, but with their limited back focus, not all might come to focus.

Spotting scopes also have loads of undersized prisms that will tend to vignette widest field eyepieces like a 32mm Plossl or 24mm Panoptic.

[Cosmic Geoff]

What do you want to do and what's your budget?

Unless your object is to buy a good spotting scope with occasional astro use, I would recommend avoiding the 'One scope does all' solution and buy 1 spotting scope and 1 astro scope with your budget.

BTW, if you buy a Startravel 102mm widefield achro telescope for around £200, it comes with a terrestial 45 deg erecting prism and 2 eyepieces, so as well as its (widefield) astro uses, it could be used as a spotting scope (though not the best-ever spotting scope regardless of expense).  Also needs a mount.

For a satisfactory view of Saturn or Jupiter (rather than seen the rings and belts, sort of) a fairly high magnification is required.  Some spotting scopes will zoom, but zoom telescopes and eyepieces have some undesirable issues.