Celestron Regal M2 80 or Trailseeker 100 (1 Viewer)

[wachipilotes]

Hello,
I am thinking of buying a medium quality spotting scope, although I usually use binoculars a lot, for certain things like observing birds at a great distance (sea, lakes, ponds), observing airplanes, and observing the Moon ... I think it is necessary to put magnification ...
These two spotting are within my budget, I also like them because they support astronomical eyepieces (I have some of them, including the famous Hyperion zoom mark IV).
One would be the Celestron Regal M2 80 and the other the Celestron TrailSeeker 100.
Both have a similar price ... in your opinion which of them would you choose? taking into account the observations that I am going to make ..

Would the Regal M2 80 be worth it with its ED lenses even if it was less than the achromatic 100 lens?

Best regards.
Wachi.

 

[jring]

Hi,

in my opinion this is no contest - a decent example of the Regal ED 80 is vastly superior to a very fast 100mm achromat.

The only exception would be for astronomical use as a rich field telescope at very low magnifications, but in that case please get an astro achromatic refractor with a 2" diagonal because with the Trailseeker 100 you are limited to the 24mm Panoptic (or its clones) for 22.5x and a 3 degree true field because of the 1.25" limitation and even that might vignette due to too small prisms.

So please get a Regal - preferably in a way you can test it before buying or have a no questions asked return policy and test it. Read up on star testing and bring an artificial star and an EP around 6mm (or your Hyperion zoom at its high mag 8mm end in a pinch).

Joachim

 

[wachipilotes]

Joachim, thank you very much for your advice ...
Certainly it would not be its greatest use (astronomical) since I have an SCT 8 ", for those" heavenly "purposes ....
Cheers,
Wachi.

 

[Borjam]

I can vouch for the Regal M2. I own a 65 mm although recently I got a Kowa TSN-883.

Been using the Regal M2 65 for several years using a Baader Hyperion Zoom and I was really happy with it. Of course the Kowa is better, but much more expensive.

In my opinion (and others who tried my Celestron scope) it offers an unbeatable bang for the buck. Many users of high end optics were surprised at the quality it offers for its price point. And it's lightweight thanks to the magnesium body.