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Perhaps a Celestron Folder? (2 Viewers)

Nixterdemus

Well-known member
Celestron producing two lines, Trailseeker and M2 in 80mm/100mm and both models are equipped to use 1 1/4" eyepieces.

Priced a bit lower than others these can represent a bargain. It would be nice if all the Celestron information was consolidated within its own folder.

Just a thought that perhaps was influenced by owning a Trailblazer & M2 both 45* and 100mm.
 
Out of curiosity perhaps someone might enlighten me as to another spotting scope manufacturer that sports two lines of glass offering the flexibility of accepting 1 1/4" eyepieces.

If nothing else that should be a qualifier for a Celestron folder, eh?
 
I suppose the question would be is if the Celestron scopes have a birding and a terrestrial
following and use, or are they more designed and used for those watching the night sky.

I hope others will chime in.

Jerry
 
Hi,

most instruments made by celestron are indeed intended to look up, like their trademark C series Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector scopes (although there's rumours of birders using a C5), but the spotting scope lines are indeed intended for terrestial use, and the Regal line seems to be quite usable at a competitive price.

I'm not sure though if there's sufficient numbers of owners in this forum to warrant a sub-forum of its own.

Joachim
 
The Celestron refractors combining an upright prism scope are fairly much similar to the others. They have their price point more towards the modest end, but both the Trailseeker and Regal are doublets and accept 1 1/4" eyepieces instead of relying on proprietary eyepieces.

There was a factory sale in May that offered $100 clams back on the Regal 100ED. [Less on the 80 & 65]. Anywho, that price was sorta close to the price of a Zeiss eyepiece. And it comes w/zoom not body only.

Granted, the more prestigious name brands have a lot going in their favour. High quality along w/holding resale and excellent customer service not to mention quality build. But, there's a lot of value in being able to exchange eyepieces and that market is competitive.

The Celestron Luminos that I bought are about one step up and they were on sale for $72 apiece. I could not believe the difference in a 82* view that was basically flat/in focus across the board. It really isn't, but when you're only pushing 36/54/77X you do not notice a slight curve.

Guys w/longer focal length and/or adding 2/2.25/2.5/3X barlows/extenders will. They are capable of pushing eyepieces to their limitations. I play around some looking at the moon, but these aren't designed for tracking mounts and higher magnification. In the best of conditions 135X is all I can do w/M2 100ED.

That's a Vixen LVS 4mm/135X[on my 540 fl] at 50*. I cannot fit the entire moon into fov and on a lightweight tripod & fluid head it's a handful. Not astronomical, yet I can play around and look at the moon/Saturn/Jupiter.

Right now I have that tripod inside trained on me feeder w/Meade 5000 UWA 4.5mm/98x 82* looking through glass door panes and can just fit a byrd in the glass. But, in a moment I swap it out w/77X.

Celestron has changed the game for folks w/meager resources. I've no interest in a scope that doesn't permit me the freedom to choose eyepieces of various fl & degrees from differing manufacturers and price points.

I have an old Kowa TSN-2 w/25XLER. the other option is a 30X WA. I do not have the opportunity to pick from 40/50/60/68/70/82/100/110* of various design from 2 to 8 elements. And in different lengths allowing me to use me scope from one end of the magnification to the other within its limits.

Coming off the soapbox I'd enjoy a Celestron folder to share w/others about their spotting scopes. None interested in astronomy would come to this forum when there are fine astrological forums available. I'm on one asking questions, but obtaining few answers because I use a spotting scope.

The Regal line is their flagship, but w/two lines utilizing 1 1/4" eyepieces Celestron is making a strong move in the terrestrial viewing market. Offering affordability naturally, but diversity that many top of the line scopes choose to ignore.
 
I lay no claim to the Regal line being an alpha slayer. Far from it though I am impressed w/versatility in being able to accept various 1 1/4" eyepieces.

It is the most bang for the buck though I've spent enough on eyepieces to have bought another. Such is the nature of the beast. I continue to maintain, thanks to the Regal line, that Celestron deserves its own folder.

Not only do they manufacture a model in 80mm & 100mm that accepts 1 1/4" eyepieces they also manufacture 1 1/4" eyepieces. I recommend the Luminos 15mm and 7mm. I'm sure the 10mm is fine as well. but before I purchased that one the Meade 100* 10mm MWA caught me eye.

Naturally that extra real estate set me back about double what I paid for an 82* Luminos, but that's the way of the world.
 
I doubt that many astrologers would contribute.

I have used numerous Celestron scopes for astronomy and terrestrial viewing.

Some are similar to the Skywatcher brand and made in the same place.
 
I had a Regal 65 ,and sold it because i had a few other scopes at the time,but what an amazing scope it was!
I now realize that it was a super cherry and regret having sold it..The Regal series is well regarded and has made a name for itself,and brought celestron to the birding panorama again,with quite a lot of dignity..the Ultima ED was a good scope,but was never really much of a contender..The thing is that is not only Celestron that has nowa very nice product at an affordable price,but the whole market is full of chinese scopes ,with many distribution brands offering similar quality..At one point a suggestion was made to create a Chinese scopes subforum ,but then again,we have the general forum that can be used to address all these possible threads,and the search tool easily finds and compiles past threads just using the right words ..I was surprised that they created a subforum to discuss watches and not one to discuss RX frames ,a more interested topic for us optics aficionados
 
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Have seen a couple of regal 80f - ed's for sale recently and am considering buying one.... People have good opinions of them, but I can see they are heavy.... Any thoughts?
Do the Opticron eye pieces fit? I thought I read somewhere these are push fit rather than threaded

Re their own folder
Does the lack of one then infer that they are of similar quality of brands like optolyth, acuter etc etc ?
 
Hi,

first of all, welcome to birdforum!

Since Celestron mainly caters to the astronomy market, their spotters can use 1.25" astro EPs. Be warned though that while they all will fit mechanically, there might be some where the spotter will not come to focus at infinity due to fairly short focus travel compared to astro scopes. Also the 20-60 zoom EP which comes with the Regals is not too shabby.

The astonishingly high weight is the series main problem - Celestron has chopped of a bit of that in their current Regal M models...

Joachim
 
Thank you very much....the focus at infinity is new to me, I've read it a few times on this site, but unsure what it means? What is the scopes normal ep? Presume a 20-60x zoom?
Are fixed eye pieces better?
Thanks again for the welcome and thanks for the help!
 
Hi,

the standard EP for the Regal T (and M) is a 20-60 zoom which seems to be quite usable. As with all zooms with a 3 times zoom range its field of view is rather narrow at the low mag end at 20x. Some brands now offer wide angle zoom EPs where some zoom range is traded for a wider fov at the low mag end.

Fixed EPs often have a wider field of view and also use some less lenses than zooms which might result in slightly less light loss due to reflections - but nowadays with multilayer anti-reflection coatings that is an issue best left to the planetary observers among the astro buffs - for terrestial observing you will be hard pressed to see a difference.

Spotting scopes usually have less focus travel than astro scopes which can have 5-10 cm.
They usually work fine with the EPs designed for it but the focal point of other EPs might be different.
If the difference is large enough, you will see performance impairments due to hiting the end of the focus travel too early - either the close focus distance is very large, or you will not be able to get into focus at infinity (moon, planets, stars). Sometimes you won't get into focus at all...

It helps to have some friends into astronomy and being able to try with their EPs or buy from a store which has a no-questions asked return policy.

Joachim
 
Well, hope springs eternal. Celestron offers a WA 15mm that, as the two different zooms, is shared by 65/80/100mm. The 100mm is 540 FL so the 15mm WA comes in a 36X and steps down from there.

Angular Field of View 2.3* (65 mm) /1.8* (80 mm)/1.6* (100 mm)

Exit Pupil 2.5 mm (65 mm) / 2.5 mm (80 mm) / 2.7 mm (100 mm)

Linear Field of View (@ 1000yds-121 ft / 40 m (65 mm) 94 ft / 31 m (80 mm) 84 ft / 28 m (100 mm)

Magnification 26x (65 mm) / 32x (80 mm) / 36x (100 mm)

Eye Relief 20 mm Weight (oz / g) 6.3 oz / 179 g
--

The ES 68* 24 mm field stop is too large for the prism, at least the 100mm, according to an online poster.

ES-68* 24mm 22.5X weight 11.6 er18.4 fs 27.2mm
2.886*

I'm not sure if the prisms are all the same size in the 65/80/100.

ES-62* 20mm 27x 5oz - 14.8 ER - 20.9 FS - 2.217* on 540 FL - EPWP6220LE-01 - $80

ES-68* 20mm 27x 8.7oz - 15.3 ER 22.8 FS- 2.419* on 540 FL EPWP6820-01 - $130

ETA: Luminous Nagler knock-off
Apparent Field of View 82 °
Barrel Size (in) 1.25 in (32 mm)
Eye Relief (mm) 17 mm (0.67 in)
Field Stop Diameter 26 mm (1.02 in)
Focal Length 15 mm (0.59 in)
Number of Lens Elements 7
Optical Coatings Fully Multi Coated
Parfocal Eyepieces Yes
Weight 12 oz

Why does FS of 26mm work in 82* though 24mm didn't at 68*? I've nary an issue pleadin' ignorance.
 
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Hi,

if the prism (or something else) vignettes with a certain EP is not determined by the afov but the tfov, which is related to the field stop diameter. and obviously the 27.2mm of the 24 ES 68 are a bit too much for the prisms - the 26mm of the 15mm Luminous might just work.

Joachim
 
Thanks for the explanation. I did a search on tfov & found this site: https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/
I see tfov when I load various eyepieces w/540mm FL of the M2 100.

The 15mm 82* Luminos has 2.28*, 68* ES 20mm 2.52* & 68* 24 3.02*.
The 24mm wasn't even close though the gent says the 20mm/2.52* was only clipped a mite at the bottom.

My M2 100 magic eyepiece tfov twixt 2.28* and just shy of 2.52*.

The ES 62* 20 mm 27X 2.3* and there's always
FL afov ER size X EP tfov tfov @ 1000 yds(feet)
Panoptic 19mm 68* 13mm 1¼" 28.4 3.5mm 2.3* 118.3

The calculator has tfov at 2.39*. That has bound to bumping the limit.

A catch-22 as I wish to go 62-72* & around 2.4* tfov 25-30X. I'm looking at targets in flight. I'm not sure the 82* does as much good on moving targets as less degrees w/more fov looking straight ahead. If I drop to 62* 26mm I'm at 21.6X using up the majority of my availaqble tfov. That's a mite on the low side for magnification.

I need a mm or two in an oddball FL that happens to match afov right at 2.4* I was hoping for something around a C-note though the 19mm Panoptic seems to have all my other bases covered.
 
I used BST explorer ED 12mm and Flat Field 16mm (the same eyepiece provided by Vortex as their 30x for the razor)on the Regal 65 ,both have about 62 degrees afov,but not sure of their tfov..in anycase non of the models vignetted at all..I think the prism is the same size in all the Regals,based in housing being the same...they have other focals in those series,probably of similar size field stop...Both offered excellent views and are very affordable..( I used them also on the ED50 and now on my Kowa 823)
 
After much perusing various eyepieces, field stops and calculating tfov[FS/FL(of scope)X57.286] 24/540X57.296=2.546*

I purchased a used Pentax 20mm SMC XW FS-24mm tfov-2.546*.
I like the numbers on the Vixen LVW 22mm except for weighing in at a lb & quarter.

The TV 3-6 zoom works well, but will only work to around 250 yds or so. Apparently it doesn't extend deep enough/too much metal on the insertion end.

Prefered eyepieces have no safety undercut. Some that do land right on the split ring tensioner under the locking collar on the scope. You push the eyepiece down and it pops back up a bit. Not a big deal though on those you have to hold them down w/one hand and crank the locking collar w/other.

No great feat though the ones that slide all the way down and stop are nice.
 
Less than a day till delivery of the 20 XW.

An 1.25" eyepiece, w/proper size/placement of erector prism, can handle 27-27.5mm field stop as I understand.
How much field stop can the Regal or Trail Seeker line handle w/o losing the entire 360* view due to misalignment or too small prisms? No clue.

The Vixen 22mm LVW sounds great at 24.55X 2.65* and a shame it doesn't come in a 1.25" only option.

https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowledgebase/celestron-spotting-scope-eyepiece-chart

All this shows is magnification values. Yet, it shows them on the following eyepiece mounted on TS & M2 spotters.
Coming in at 6.7 oz is the 6 element X-Cel LX 25mm 60* 21.7X 2.779* [FS measured by Earnest at 25mm tfov 2.652*] This is greater tfov than the Pentax though less than the limit, more or less, of 1.25" eyepiece at 27mm FS at tfov 2.864*.
So, even though Celestron provides no tfov specs they show the magnification of their 1.25" eyepieces on their various spotters.

If the Celestron 1.25" eyepieces aren't as wide as advertised that could explain why they would work on their spotters. They make no such claim that I can find, yet by listing the magnification table the implication is that all Celestron 1.25" eyepieces would work on their spotters w/interchangeable eyepieces.

Time will tell for two of their scopes ...
 
I think FrankD was using Pentax XW eyepieces in His first tests of the Regal,a while ago already.IIRC the wider 20mm XW vignetted fitted to the 80mm regal.But I might be wrong...
 
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