Celestron 52305 Regal M2 80ED Spotting Scope

Very nice scope worth the £650, nice crisp image gets bit darker if zoom past 45x but it's still great value, have upgraded mine to the 100mm version which has perfect zoom up to 67x loses no brightness. Both scopes are heavy though need a good stable tripod.

I spent some time researching which scope to buy and this seemed to tick all the boxes. It arrived very quickly and I have been very pleased with its performance.Ii feel it represents excellent value for money and would reccommend it to anyone

Absolutely crystal clear images with its supplied eyepiece at 20x. Acceptable and usable even at the 60x end of the scale. Reasonably good at 40x. Focus is very smooth and arguably, the dual focus isn't required but is a nice addition. Works well with other 1.25" eyepieces (tried with 3.8 mm Orion Ultrascopic, 10 mm Tele Vue Radian, 12.5 mm Antares Plossl, 20 mm Meade Super Plossl and 32 mm Antares Plossl - the 10 mm and 32 mm being the best.) Also works with a 2x Barlow. Poor for digiscoping through the supplied eyepiece (or at least it is with a Canon EOS 60D). Using the eyepiece set to 20x with the supplied adapter and an EOS T adapter, I got okay images but they were soft even at the centre (very soft just off centre) and had patches in places - like lens flare, which clearly isn't possible where it was used. Zoom even slightly and the image "whites-out" in the centre and diagonally upward. Also, the tripod mount doesn't have sufficient range to balance the scope with attached DSLR. Back-focus limits means you can't adequately use it for digiscoping without an eyepiece, even with a compact nose-piece. With a short (modified) 2x Barlow, it can be used out to say 100 m. It's well made although frustratingly has a couple of specks of dust inside its nitrogen filled body. Fortunately the one in the middle of the glass at the eyepiece end of the tube doesn't impact viewing. The cover zips back sufficiently to allow the scope to be tripod mounted whilst fitted but has to be folded forward to allow the focus to be used. The front lens cover is hard to remove and the lens hood is difficult to extend with the cover on i.e. it's a cover for carrying the scope but not practical for remaining in-place whilst in use. Summing up, fantastic at 20x zoom, works very well with standard 1.25" eyepieces but not good for digiscoping.

Cracking scope. Beautifully sharp optics. Good quality zoom eyepiece. The ability to use my astronomical eyepieces if I want as it's also very useable as an occassional casual astro scope. Clever stay-on case that sits nicely over your shoulder. If I had one really petty niggle it's the eyepiece cover that has a very fine thread that I can't unscrew silently! I think I can fix that with a little damping :-) Seriously pleased with this scope.

Excellent value for money - puts some other more expensive scopes to shame!

Good product

Telescopio de gama media alta,con una gran nitidez sobre todo a bajos aumentos. A la máxima potencia,la visión sigue siendo muy razonable. Las aberraciones cromáticas son prácticamente inexistentes en el centro de la lente,notándose muy poco en la periferia.Muy manejable,con mucha profundidad de campo,lo cual permite que con el fantástico ajuste fino que tiene,se enfoquen muy rápido y sencillamente los objetos. Los detalles como la tapa del objetivo y la protección del ocular lo hacen muy rápido de montar y desmontar para guardarlo en la funda,la cual es perfecta,con unos velcros dispuestos para poder incluso colocarlo sin tener que desenfundarlo. Diría que a este precio,es muy buena compra.

I just received my scope, and so far my first impressions are very positive. Amazon wont let me but I'd maybe rate this 4.5 stars. Pros: I've only tried the scope on an overcast day, and while the view becomes darker when zooming all the way in to 60x (keep in mind that this is a characteristic of all zoom eyepieces that I know of), it was still perfectly usable, thanks to the 80mm objective. The decrease in brightness shouldn't be a problem at all on a sunny day. Lack of sharpness was my biggest concern since I've seen how $2000+ scopes perform, but it actually holds up very well as It's surprisingly sharp even zoomed all the way in to 60x. I can easily make out waterfowl 1km out from shore, even at just 20x zoom. I might update this review once I test it in sunnier conditions and when I get the chance to really put it to the test with further birds. I like the magnesium alloy build, and the included bag/cover is nice and decently padded. Cons: So far, one of the only cons I found are that the field of view is a bit narrow, although not any worse than typical binoculars. Again, this is in comparison with scopes that cost more than 2 grand, which are incredible to look through. The field of view might be improved with a more expensive eyepiece though. The scope takes standard 1.25" astronomical eyepieces so there's probably lots of options out there. While I do like the magnesium alloy build, I do wish the entire scope had a rubber coating rather than just the angled part behind the tripod collar, but this may add to the weight. The included bag also is fairy well padded. Next is that even with the fully multicoated optics and ED lenses, there's still just a tad bit of chromatic aberration, but nothing really distracting or even noticeable in most situations. I wouldn't even really consider this a real con though since it's still just very slight; I'm probably just nitpicking lol. And finally, I find that the focus knob takes way too many turns to change from max to min focus, even when using the coarse focus knob (it has a fine focus knob too, which I like a lot), but I'll probably just be using my binoculars when I need to see something close. As an aside, while I don't think it's fair to call it a con, I was a bit surprised at how big the 80mm model is. It definitely looked smaller in photos and videos, but I guess most scopes I've seen in person just happen to have been smaller 50-70mm scopes. For those who plan on carrying the scope in a backpack rather than keep it on a tripod and resting it on your shoulder like a lot of birders do, I would maybe suggest the 60mm model. This spotting scope is thankfully not too heavy though. Overall, this is a fantastic scope with amazing optical and great build quality for the price.

Es mi primer telescopio, nos sorprendió la calidad de la imagen, el material se ve resistente, la funda está genial por qué no es necesario quitárselo para usarlo y también me gustó el proyector del objetivo que es de metal, hasta ahora todo muy bien

bel instrument, superbe rendu, sans défaut. facile d'utilisation. nécessite un bon trépied très stable. je l'ai principalement utilisé pour 1er instrument astronomique. ce n'est pas sa fonction première mais il se défend très bien de par la qualité du matériel. j'ai un court instant réussi à discerner les annaux de Saturne ! honnêtement je ne m'attendais pas à y parvenir. mais cela reste vraiment trop petit et frustrant pour l'astronome amateur que je suis. Il s'agit d'un matériel pour vision terrestre et de jour en premier lieu. la vision est confortable, la précision / sensibilité des réglages à la portée de tous.

I am an avid birder and have been looking for a scope for a few years now. I finally decided to look through some scopes and do my due diligence on finding a great scope at a great price. This was not an easy task. Fortunately for me I live close to Cape May point where many birders come from all over the world. This enabled me to talk to many people about their scopes and actually look through many of them, which if you have been looking for a scope you know this is not an easy thing to do. Most stores are limited in what they sell. The hawk watch is sponsored by Swarovski so this enabled be to look through the top of the line scopes of the birding world. They were very nice, but was not willing to spend $2,500 or more on a scope. This is where I saw someone with a Celestron scope who was more than happy to let me use it for a couple of minutes. I couldn’t believe how bright and crisp the image was even a higher magnification ( even compared to the Swarovski) and when I was told what the price tag was I was sold. So I went home did more research and discovered this scope has great reviews and is priced quite nicely. Likes: Quality of the scope The clarity and brightness The weight The Price Dislikes: The only thing I can say is the where the focus mechanism is, but after using it for a day this is a non-factor and I can focus quickly after using after one day. I would recommend this scope to anyone, no matter what they are willing to spend. If you are looking for a tripod to match check out the Magnus VT-4000.