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

2013-05-17T21:00:00

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.

Bob

2013-04-08T21:00:00

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.

Bob