Hi spotting scopes are not my forte. I am looking for a reasonably priced spotting scope for stationary birdwatching from my balcony but would also like to be able to use the same scope for some general night sky watching, like moon, planets. Nothing too demanding. Can anyone recommend a scope that would be reasonably suitable for this/ Price wise we are talking £200-300. Many thanks for any advise in advance
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Spotting scope for birdwatching/night sky (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Rene1958
- Start date
Hi Rene,
if you are talking about strictly from your balcony, an astro refractor, new or used is going to give much better results for both.
You have to live with the usual left-tight mirrored image though, unless you get an amici prism, which is a bit tricky to get in good quality and at an affordable price. The Televue 1.25" amici prism is well regarded if you can find one used...
Joachim
if you are talking about strictly from your balcony, an astro refractor, new or used is going to give much better results for both.
You have to live with the usual left-tight mirrored image though, unless you get an amici prism, which is a bit tricky to get in good quality and at an affordable price. The Televue 1.25" amici prism is well regarded if you can find one used...
Joachim
I use an old William optics 66mm Apo with their erecting prism and wide field eyepieces, my lighter weight spotter. I think other companies now sell equivalent versions. Astro refractors are not made of the lightweight materials spotting scopes are, so can be heavy for tor their size (>4kg for my 80mm…. Never used for spotting!)
Perfectly happy on the night sky if I need (but small aperture for deep sky stuff, but the moon looks nice).
peter
Perfectly happy on the night sky if I need (but small aperture for deep sky stuff, but the moon looks nice).
peter
I use a Svbony SV406P. 80mm ED with 20-60x eyepiece included. Depending on where you buy it, about USD 250 for scope+EP.
For visual birding use, quality seems very good, no CA even at 60x. At night, full moon is great, Jupiter shows bands, Saturn shows rings.
See attached pictures of full moon (around 40x, some lateral CA when digiscoping but not visible in visual use), collared kingfisher (around 40x, ditto CA) and variegated green skimmer (at 60x, you can count the hairs on its legs).
Attachments
I am using my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 handheld to the eyepiece, with the eyeguard raised 2 stops to get the correct eye relief. If I leave the eyeguard down, I tend to put the phone too close and get SAEP/kidney beaning.
The wildlife shots are all in auto mode, but sometimes I'll reduce the exposure before shooting (the vignetting sometimes fools the phone into over-brightening the picture). For the moon, I shot in manual focus mode as the auto mode had trouble getting a sharp image.
In visual use I cannot see any chromatic aberration, the photos do not do it justice. It looks far sharper and more detailed in visual use than the pictures suggest.
At 60x for visual use, I don't see any CA.
Pepitogrillo
Well-known member
You have used this Spotting scope with more magnification than 60x ? With good visual image?
And, for magnification more low than 20x and more visual field..?
Thanks
And, for magnification more low than 20x and more visual field..?
Thanks
William Lewis
Wishing birdwatching paid the bills.
Tricky balance to strike that as really quite excellent Astronomy telescopes are so cheap due to there optical simplicity.
You can pick up an 8 inch dobsonian (skywatcher 200) for about £275. With refractors you tend to have to spend a little more + have a half decent tripod to get a half decent go at Astronomy. I used to use an 80mm opticron one (decent quality circa £8/900 with tripod etc) that was OK but could only just see the rings of saturn where as the 8 inch dobsobian can get the cassini division, uranus etc etc for less than half the money.
Maybe worth looking at some >50mm binoculars? It might be a better way to cover both bases without compromising on quality and you can take them out and about if the fancy takes you?
You can pick up an 8 inch dobsonian (skywatcher 200) for about £275. With refractors you tend to have to spend a little more + have a half decent tripod to get a half decent go at Astronomy. I used to use an 80mm opticron one (decent quality circa £8/900 with tripod etc) that was OK but could only just see the rings of saturn where as the 8 inch dobsobian can get the cassini division, uranus etc etc for less than half the money.
Maybe worth looking at some >50mm binoculars? It might be a better way to cover both bases without compromising on quality and you can take them out and about if the fancy takes you?
An 80mm f/15 used Japanese refractor with mount costing perhaps £100 will show Cassini's division and the disc.of Uranus and even Neptune.
If the objective needs cleaning it is usually straight forward.
There may be pencil marks on the sides of the two elements of the objective that need to be lined up.
Of course a 200mm Dobsonian will show much more and is all one actually needs for serious observations.
I started with a 3 inch refractor for ten years, then a 220mm Newtonian for the next ten years.
Then a 317mm Dall Kirkham.
My friend made beautiful disc drawings of Mars at 180x with the Evostar 90mm f/10.
About £220 new or £100 used. Or the Celestron version.
Regards,
B.
If the objective needs cleaning it is usually straight forward.
There may be pencil marks on the sides of the two elements of the objective that need to be lined up.
Of course a 200mm Dobsonian will show much more and is all one actually needs for serious observations.
I started with a 3 inch refractor for ten years, then a 220mm Newtonian for the next ten years.
Then a 317mm Dall Kirkham.
My friend made beautiful disc drawings of Mars at 180x with the Evostar 90mm f/10.
About £220 new or £100 used. Or the Celestron version.
Regards,
B.
High power question already answered here:
The lowest power/widest field I have used in the SV406P is 19x, with a 23mm aspheric eyepiece. It is claimed to be 62° but was measured at 57°, so 3.1° true field of view. I do not know if the scope can show a wider view. More testing is needed, but I do not have the necessary eyepieces e.g. 32mm/52° Plossl or 24mm/68° Panoptic.
This thread ended over 1 year ago, if you have more questions about the SV406P, it is better to ask in the threads that discuss it specifically.
