I just got an original Regal 65 ,Goodold Grey body (with Celestron signature Orange accent..much better looking than the new green IMO)..Cherry copy I guess, (If they are all this well corrected then Celestron knows something about QC)..Nice scope ,Im impressed..YES ITS HEAVY..HEFTY BEAST,,but really well made ..The coarse focus has a point of friction,or a "bump" but is not bad and doesnt seem to affect the view creating any image jump or else,so its just that..the fine focus is very nice..the dual knob feels very solid . More solid for instance ,than the ZEN ED82 MkI focusser,that always felt a bit flimsy .This one is compact ,well positioned and thightly fitted to the body and you can see the metal core in the knob being thick enough ..Massive SOLID tripod foot with multiple holes ,for balancing the scope(definitely back heavy)..The solid tripod mount is important in dampening vibrations more than I thought..I realized this after using the Helios/saker ED60 for a while ,featuring the flimpsier/shakier foot ever in a decent scope..Image quality is very good,worth to mention the Zoom performance..good zoom indeed..I have been looking at pictures of the M2 zoom and seems exactly the same as the one I have.Interesting that is marked 18x-24x-32x-40x-48x specifically for the 65 mm,and not in a generic way for all three Regal sizes.This zoom seems to offer a bit wider FOV than other zooms I have used,definitely wider than the one in the Helios/Saker .It seems to reach 60º at 48x but I think opens to that AFOV in the 20-30X..Not much difference when comparing the FOV with the BST 12mm (32x)or the Flat Field 16mm(25x) ,both featuring 60º AFOVs...
at 48x ,In the morning light, I got a lot of detail looking at my new neighbor the female Kestrel @ 250 feet ..The Helios at 45X was ok,but the Celestron was delivering real fine detail...Star-test shows good correction,.No astigmatism,almost no coma,great color correction,and UNUSUALLY LOW Spheric aberration showing rings before focus as clearly as in the past focus area ..anyway if the M2 has the same optics,same zoom and is lighter is a killer scope for the price.To bad they changed the color scheme!!!!The scope comes with good accessories,IN A BOX WITH EXCELLENT CUSTOM FOAM INSERTS,real quality padding (this is nice when you see it) It also includes a T-mount adapter that goes on the eyepiece threads(under the eyecupthat needs to be unscrewed to expose them),and a very unusual eyepiece cover..this is an aluminum tube with a removable threaded cap ,that probaby can do duty as a primary focus camera adapter..And then another reminder
.Bear in mind that for more than a year now Celestron DOES NOT offer the fault-free warranty on scopes anymore..I think they offer ONE MONTH to return scopes with collimation issues or optics defects though..