Which Telescope ? (1 Viewer)

I might have put the cart before the horse but I have acquired a Canon Powershot A95 and now would like to acquire a scope for both obervation and digiscoping ...can anyone please suggest a scope which would be suitable?

natbass said:

I might have put the cart before the horse but I have acquired a Canon Powershot A95 and now would like to acquire a scope for both obervation and digiscoping ...can anyone please suggest a scope which would be suitable?

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Whats your budget? Whatever it is, try & go for as good a scope as you can afford. Also go for a larger diameter lens (80mm+) as this lets more light in than say a 65mm. Having persevered with a kowa 821 for a while, i bit the bullet & bought a swaro ATS80 HD. The difference in quality shots acheived was remarkable! I am not saying that you have to go to the expense of the swaro, but at least try & get a scope with decent glass. (ED, flourite, HD or other such designations. you wont regret it!) In short go for the biggest & best you can afford, with a fixed (say 20 or 30x) eyepiece, & you wont go far wrong. Im sure others will be along to argue the finer points of different models.
Regards Rob B

many thanks Rob...I appreciate the advice about quality. I guess I am in the mid range budget area . I had been wondering about the spec for the lens and eyepiece so I now have a starting point ....anyone else any views on models to try or to avoid ?

Hello natbass,

I just went out today and got myself the ATS80HD Swarovski, and this was after quite a lot of debating on what I could afford and what would be best. I must say I am very happy with the clarity of this scope, and as Rob pointed out the 80mm will certainly help when digiscoping. I can highly recommend this scope, although it is very pricey.
Now I am looking at buying the camera you just bought - Canon A95, also with the intention of using it for digiscoping. What are your thoughts on the camera?

Regards

Robert
www.safarirangers.com

hi safariranger,

I bought the Canon Powershot a couple of weeks ago in London for 199 pounds and this included a few useful extras. I have not had a digital camera before but it was so simple. It worked straight out of the box but there is scope for more spohisticated photograhy than point and shott ! . I am very happy with the quality of pics ...I have even managed a couple of bird pics using just the onboard zoom and patience ! ...cant wait to get a decent scope tho and get to RutlandWater our best local birdwatching site and photograph the rarities...will have to wait till next year for the local Ospreys as they are down your way at the moment !

i use my A95 with a zeiss diascope 85FL, the brightest scope out there, i would really recomend it.

Hi Natbass,

I use my A95 with an Opticron ES80 GA ED scope (about £400 excluding eyepiece, £520ish with a x23 HDF eyepiece) which possibly fits into your price band (together with a Baader planetarium adaptor at £30) and get excellent results for the money if used for digiscoping and I'm more than happy with the scope for birding use. Check out my gallery shots of blackbirds taken with the setup to see what sort of quality it's capable of.