Spotting Scope

[Guest roblynmouth]

Hi

Another question, I am thinking of getting a spotting scope as part of my night sky appreciation.

I have seen a Vision King 12-36 magnification, 50mm lense.

How does this rate as a sky spotting scope? As its on £39, the price is well within my budget and as an add on.

Thoughts?

[BAZ]

I have to be honest, at a total length of 200mm, it's going to have a really short focal length, and as it's below £50, I would think you might not be too happy. With it being so short,  the CA would probably render it miserable for Astro.

 

I could be wrong, but I would suggest you see if you can have a look through one first.

 

The birders on here would maybe be able to suggest one that would do the job.

[philjay]

From experience these spotters in this price range arent very good at astro, I had onecawhile back for spotting targets on a shooting range, which it was ok at but the false colour and coma on astro objects were very bad. The 50mm is a bit on thevsmall side, couple that with the extra optics inside the scope compared to an astro scope and the images are quite dim.

I would recommend a Skywatcher Startravel 80mm scope. You can pick them up quite reasonably, even new they are about 80 quid and they can be used forvastro and spotting with an erect image prism. They are small and light, Ive used mine as a holiday scope many times

[Guest roblynmouth]

Ok, thats great.

I must admit i was quite taken with the design of the thing. But having looked at the recomendation, i can see the difference in spec being used to a better advantage.

Now all i'v got to do is smuggle it in past the wife, whoes a bit sceptable at the moment