Celestron Regal M2 80ED Spotting Scope with 20-60x Eyepiece, 480mm Focal Length, 20mm Eye Relief, BaK-4 Prisms

Celestron Regal M2

Celestron

Adorama

Optics & Binoculars

Spotting Scopes & Accessories

Spotting Scopes

Celestron Spotting Scopes

Celestron Regal M2 

25% Off: Celestron Regal M2 80ED Spotting Scope with 20-60x Eyepiece, 480mm Focal Length, 20mm Eye Relief, BaK-4 Prisms Buy now & save $291. Design: Angled Viewing, Eyepiece Style: "1.25"" Universal", Eyepiece Type: Zoom Eyepiece, Minimum Zoom Power: 20x

The Celestron Regal M2 80ED Spotting Scope is the next generation of top-performing Regal F-ED spotting scopes. Day or night, the Regal M2 is optimized to provide the sharpest images available. You'll love them for bird watching, nature observing, long distance viewing and casual astronomical observing.These top-of-the-line spotting scopes provide all the advanced features usually found on more expensive scopes, including Extra Low Dispersion (ED) glass. The series boasts a magnesium alloy body, decreasing the overall weight of the spotting scopes by more than 14% when compared to the previous model. The new M2 scopes also include an upgraded dual focus mechanism, allowing you to bring your subject into focus two times faster.Regal M2 is fully waterproof and nitrogen-purged to prevent fogging. It's available in a new green color and comes with a carrying case so you can bring it with you anywhere.  If you're interested in photographing your discoveries, Regal is the perfect choice. Attach your camera to the Regal using a T-Ring and the included T-Adapter to produce stunning images! The Regal M2 spotter is a great companion for any outdoor enthusiast.

One of my intended uses for this scope was to view comet PANSTARRS and hopefully, comet ISON later this year.  Though I didn't manage to find PANSTARRS from my location, I think it will work well for comet viewing.  I have used it to look at some stars, and the image quality seems to be as good as my 20X70 Fujinon binoculars – star images are bright and sharp with excellent contrast to the dark background.  But there are some issues which need to be considered when using this scope for astronomy.

Image brightness:  The large diameter objective lens and the optical glass and coatings combine to yield bright images.  This is an advantage when looking at faint objects, but the moon and planets are too bright to be able to see any detail on them.  Neither the objective lens nor the eyepiece accepts filters, making it impossible to attenuate the glare.

Eyepiece interchangeability:  This scope accepts standard 1.25 inch eyepieces, so it would seem that one could replace the provided zoom eyepiece with one that can accept filters, but I tried all of the eyepieces from my astronomical telescope and none of them could be focused.  I haven't figured out a workaround for this yet.  Celestron addresses this situation in their knowledge base (article 2329 on www.celestron .com). 

Aiming:  The alignment groove on the sliding sunshade doesn't help much for pointing the scope at a star.

Bottom line – optically, I think this is a great scope and it could be a good portable stargazing scope if the above issues are addressed.

Good scope for birding part 2

As a newbie to birdwatching, the bright,sharp images have been a big help to viewing and identifying birds.

The two speed focus knob is very useful

Even though the scope comes with a T adapter, it doesn't work well with my camera equipment (Canon S2IS) - difficult to aim, focus, and way too much vignetting.

The included balance plate has a sharp edge on the top and inadequate clearance (1/8 of an inch or less) to the body of the scope, so it's easy to damage the paint on the scope while mounting it.

Celestron Regal M2 80ED Spotting Scope with 20-60x Eyepiece, 480mm Focal Length, 20mm Eye Relief, BaK-4 Prisms

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