Economical spotting are OK for visual? (1 Viewer)

Hello,
I see this spotter, one Yukon 6-100X100, and I am thinking if this spotting scope can be a good alternative (for not too much money) for birwatching in visual mode, for example for large distance, estuaries..seawatching, other possibility is one celestron achromatic Ultima 20-60X100 spotting scope or a Vanguard Endeavour 82A HD if it´s a true ED lens..with best image clarity, but for your price I doubt....anyone have experience with this three economical spotter?
All three your cost is aprox. between 300 to 400 Euro.
Thanks in advance for your sincere opinion.
Wachi.

No experience at all. However, with scopes I find the optical and mechanical quality so important that I wouldn't go for anything but a scope made by one of the established makers: Kowa, Leica, Meopta, Nikon, Swarovski, Zeiss and so on. I could happily live with some fairly cheap binoculars if need be, but I couldn't live with a scope that isn't sharp and contrasty and so on.

And even with those makes I quoted I'd check any scope I wanted to buy very carefully before actually buying it. There were (and presumably still are) quite a few lemons about, although things have apparently got a bit better over the past few years.

Hermann

Hermam, thank you very much for your comments!
Wachi

I have the Yukon 6x-100x100.
It is very light weight. Plastic body.
Yukon quality varies a lot and they generally have poor coatings.
I have their drawtube spotters, folded refractor spotters and Futurus 12x50 binocular.
One of the smaller folded refractor Yukon spotters has a seized focus, just poor quality, bought secondhand from a shop. Didn't bother to return it.
The drawtube scopes have inferior optics compared to the Soviet 20x50 drawtube scopes, but quite wide field on the wide field version.

The 6x-100x100 that I have is really useful as the 100x can be easily used. It is a folded refractor, so no prisms.
Their are now two versions angled and straight eyepiece.
I suspect mine is a good one. If I dropped it I doubt that it would survive undamaged.

The 30x50 Yukon folded refractor binocular that I have is really impressive on resolution, but again poor Yukon coatings. No prisms, good alignment.

The 12x50 Futurus sample is also very good, wide field, white glass, but again poor coatings.

Their adverts as with many lower price optics is mere waffle.

I have an early 80mm Acuter spotter, which is good enough for me, although I have better spotters.
Also 100mm and 80mm f/5 short focus refractors.

I am quite happy with lower price optics, but I don't observe in the rain etc.
I also have better optics.

I think that a good lower price 100mm Ultima spotter would suit me O.K. But I would expect to be able to use at least 100x, not 60x maximum.

But lower price optics may vary a lot in quality. Higher price optics also vary, but not so much.

Thanks Binastro a sugerent opinion!!! I observe very distant things...
Wachi

The Ultima can take standard astro 1.25” eyepieces, so you could buy one to give you more magnification... thoug I wonder how it would fare, cheap scopes seem to get nasty with higher magnification faster than quality ones???
I have a nice (small) astro,scope, but would be interested in bigger for higher powers/brighter image, but I’d prefer not to get too crummy views compared to what I have.

Peter

Hi,

not having tried either of the scopes, I can't really comment. Regarding the Yukon, the reviews are quite mixed - from sharp at 100x to not usable beyond 25x. So if you try, buy from Amazon or some other place with no question asked return.

The Ultima 100 was available as an ED version some years ago... if you can find a good example of that used, it might be interesting... but I would be vary to buy used without a possibility to test it before...

No opinion on the vanguard.

Or get an astro scope... a small Mak maybe...

Joachim

An astro scope would be best for distant views, maybe an ED or long focus refractor.
I used these or mainly a 150mm Maksutov for terrestrial use. It could be distant birds or anything else. Smaller Maksutovs are O.K. but suffer more from poor contrast unless well designed, high quality and designed to control temperature variations.

Yukon quality is very variable.
If the Yukon 6x-100x100 mirrors are not flat or the lenses are not made well, I can understand why 25x would be the top power, but mine is fine at 100x. I like the light weight but it is fragile I think.
A normal refractor spotting scope would be a safer choice.

Mirror scopes of all types have more problems with temperature changes than traditional long focus refractors. Some can be completely useless.
Short focus refractors seem more susceptible to temperature changes than long focus ones.

My 216mm aperture f6 Newtonian was very good, but it never split close double stars as well as the old observatory 135mm f/16 doublet refractor. Whatever the conditions. But the Newtonian showed fainter objects.

More importantly for distance viewing is the weather and atmospheric conditions.
I don't observe in rain or poor Seeing, whereas dedicated birdwatchers seem to observe at all times.
I thought of apologising for using high magnification, but this wouldn't be correct as I seek out the best conditions.

It seems that birdwatchers use 20x to 30x with their scopes.
I certainly used 16x, 4.7 degree field and 20x, 3 degree plus field and 35x, 2 degree field with my short focus 123mm refractor, but usually 80x or 100x.

Fellow astronomers go even further.
They plot the jet stream on a daily or hourly basis.
Apparently, this is the key to the best Seeing conditions, and they carefully pick these times.
They also go to Barbados or emigrate to Cyprus.
In the past it was found that certain locations in Greece gave wonderful Seeing. 65x or 70x per inch of aperture was and is used for planetary observations with fine long focus refractors of about 6 inch aperture.
Now La Palma, Tenerife and Hawaii mountains are sought out or high locations in the U.S.A. and even 16,000 feet sites in Chile.
La Palma is the second choice for the 30 metre telescope if Hawaii is not suitable.

I would prefer the Vanguard Endeavour 82A HD. Although Vanguard is not one of the premium producers their products are very well made. At least the Endeavour binos are very good optics. So I would not hesitate to buy a scope too.