pentax 65EDII or Pentax 80ED (2 Viewers)

not an experienced user and looking to get one or the other. From my research(and annoying questions) pentax seems to fight out of their weight division and both of these things get good reviews. Budget would prefer the 65ED but I would consider saving longer to get the 80 and wondered the following:

1.I assume the 80Ed will need a larger and more cumbersome tripod?
2. Anyone know what potential decent maximums for night viewing celestial objects would be for these? Can spotters operate to 40x aperture like astro-scopes in good viewing conditions or is this unrealistic?
3. I understand scopes can vary unit to unit and as I would have to order this in from the US I will not be able to check its quality in advance, nor return it. Is the risk high of getting a unit that is not operating to the quality it should? Would folks see a blind purchase for pentax as a bad idea?
4. Are there any businesses here or others who deal internationally that anyone could recommend?
5. If I found a business who can ship to me would anyone be interested in checking their scopes in person for a fee( assuming its the same city. I'm serious btw)

2 threads and no replies, I apparently have screwed up the secret handshake. Oh well.

Hi sixtus,

No secret handshake slip up, it just takes a bit. Also your interest appears more towards astronomy than birding, so people may be less confident about responding.

The Pentax scopes are pretty good by all accounts, even being the reference standard at one point in the Better View Desired appraisals by Steve Ingraham.
https://www.cloudynights.com/BVD/Pentax-80mm-Ed-Spotting-Scope.php

They also are compatible with standard 1.25" astronomy eyepieces afaik, so that you have more and cheaper options for observations.

The bigger scope will want a bigger tripod, but it would still be lightweight compared to the piers sometimes used for astronomy. Both Pentaxes are pretty small aperture by astronomy standards, but they should manage 40x easily. I'm no astronomer, but BF has real experts such as Binastro who could tell you how much magnification you could reasonably achieve with them, probably 60x and 80x respectively.

Quality assurance, international shipping and prechecking are difficult issues.
It is a mystery to me that fine optics are not shipped with basic optical test results, so it remains a matter of chance whether you get a lemon or a cherry. Ricoh Pentax has been undergoing restructuring and I have no idea how their scope unit ranks in the corporate pecking order, whether it is a star or an orphan. So that uncertainty is there.

There should be Hong Kong mail order shops that offer good prices and have experience in overseas shipping, but I've only used Tenso, the Japanese international delivery shop.
https://www.tenso.com/en/login
That has worked well for me with purchases from Amazon Japan.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

Hi,

lots of questions and no easy answers... let me try anyways...

1) you should aim to get a tripod with a maximum load of at least double the weight of body, EP and camera (if you want to digiscope) for good stability. It also helps to get legs which are long enough so that you can use the scope without the middle column extended (or mostly down) as this improves stability. I would probably get a tripod rated for 4kg max or more for both.

2) very good examples can reach 40x per inch of aperture but in general a spotting scope is not ideal for astro. First of all it's a super-fast refractor with a focal ratio of f5.5 or so which usually calls for a triplet objective with ED glass at least and not a lot of spotters have a triplet objective for weight reasons.
On the other hand a very fast instrument would be nice as a rich field refractor but with 1.25" eyepieces this is a bit limited plus the widest 1.25" EPs (like Panoptic or ES68 in 24mm) will show vignetting due to too small prisms in spotters.

3 & 4) I (and some others here) have seen lemons from alpha brands, so yes, there is a chance to get one. Frankly I haven't looked through enough scopes for valid statistics... plus I don't remember a Pentax (which are rare over here in Zeiss and Leica country - Wetzlar is an hour's drive).

5) I was going to recommend Teleskop Express as they do a lot of international orders and offer to have optics tested independently before shipping (for a fee) but alas - they don't seem to carry Pentax spotters any more - only EPs...

Joachim

Thanks guys for the considered replies. I think I might take the plunge and buy a pentax PF-80ED angled through bhphotovideo NY. I heard they are good international shippers. Our chat forums show a lot of happy customers this end from them. Not sure whether any of their staff would be interested/qualified to check the optics of the unit they would be sending in advance( probably not). I'd even paypal one of their guys $50 to check it out but I assume they wouldn't care or know one way or the other . Sometimes you just have to jump in , buy and try.

Hi,

ok, I hope you get a good one. bhphoto is warmly recommended - I have been to their NYC store and had a nice chat on optics there before buying and I think I also ordered sth from them - no problems.

Joachim