Sleeper spotting scope

Flashpoint

Flashpoint

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I've been looking at the Celestron C90 recently mostly as a telephoto lens but it's actually marketed as a 3 in 1 spotting, telephoto, and astronomical scope. From what I've read it is phenomenal quality for being well south of $200, and a bit of a "sleeper" in that not many people realize this. They don't typically come with a tripod (but the optics planet deal includes one) so you'll have to take into consideration that expense, but in a way that's good so you can get one optimized for what you intend to do with it.

Anyone familiar with these? Are they well known in the shooting community? Is there something lacking in this design for range use as compared to a more conventional spotting scope?

https://www.opticsplanet.com/celest...e-52268-op-90mm-spotting-scope-with-trip.html

https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-52...&qid=1528669157&sr=8-1&keywords=celestron+C90


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I forget what they call these, maybe reflex lens. Whatever they call them, they deliver a long focal length by collecting the image from the doughnut and bouncing it against a couple mirrors before sending it to the eye piece. All of that takes light and introduces distortion. If the quality is good then you’ll be happy in sunlight, but there is no getting around the physics of the thing so you’ll be wanting more light at dawn and dusk.
 
JimB said:
I forget what they call these, maybe reflex lens. Whatever they call them, they deliver a long focal length by collecting the image from the doughnut and bouncing it against a couple mirrors before sending it to the eye piece. All of that takes light and introduces distortion. If the quality is good then you’ll be happy in sunlight, but there is no getting around the physics of the thing so you’ll be wanting more light at dawn and dusk.
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It's a Maksutov design, a type of reflector as opposed to the more typical refractor design. What it accomplishes with mirrors refractors have to do with lenses which have their own issues. From what I've read, the image quality is significantly better than a typical spotting scope in that price range. As far as brightness I don't know, but I expect it will be fine because most reflectors have significantly larger apertures than refractors of the same general size and that seems to be the case here. Anyways I see that being more of an issue for a hunting scope than a day at the range scope.
 
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I think in terms of f-stops.

The f-stop is the focal length divided by the aperture, both in mm, in this case 1,250/90= F 13.9.

The image will be somewhat dim vs looking with the naked eye, but you’ll be fine during the day, and you’ll certainly appreciate the light weight.

FWIW I think this is a 39x scope, calculated as the 1,250mm focal length divided by the eyepiece 32mm.

Final note, this is the baby brother of the celestron 1,250mm f10.0 lens that was often used for photography from the space shuttle. Celestron obviously does know how to make this design perform well.
 
Thought I'd resurrect this. I got one of these scopes and haven't used it at the range yet, but it came with a large astronomy type tripod and I got the T-Ring to use my Canon mirrorless camera with it so here's a video I shot showing the image. The birdhouse was 95 yards away according to my rangefinder.

 
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Maksutov-Cassegrain Optical Design The Hubble Space Telescope uses similar design.

Maksutov_spot_cassegrain.png
 
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Do they have an adjustable objective to adjust for parallax? When I shoot at 100, then maybe 200 and 300 for groups at the range it does make a difference. If you are just hitting 8" steel plates then maybe you don't care. Plus that scope looks huge. Do you need a alrge SUV to haul it around? :D
 
the reviews on Amazon of people using it for a spotting scope are great. And I think it's just looks huge because it's compact and shorter than a regular spotting scope. Looks like the 12.5mm eyepiece is the way to go for distances over 200yds.
 
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The scope weighs just over a kilo, under 2.5 lbs, measures 15.7" x 10.2" x 10.2" with include eyepiece.

You can get an inexpensive clamp at HD or Lowe's, add a 1/4"x20 ball mount to the bar and your good to go.
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CZfool68 said:
Do they have an adjustable objective to adjust for parallax? When I shoot at 100, then maybe 200 and 300 for groups at the range it does make a difference. If you are just hitting 8" steel plates then maybe you don't care. Plus that scope looks huge. Do you need a alrge SUV to haul it around? :D
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This isn't a rifle scope with cross hairs, parallax error isn't an issue.

It's actually pretty compact, Check out the relative size of the camera (which is also small compared to an SLR) attached to it.
 
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I completely misjudged the distance to the birdhouse in the vid, I just went back out there and laser measured it at 95 yards. Corrected the OP.
 
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Flashpoint said:
I completely misjudged the distance to the birdhouse in the vid, I just went back out there and laser measured it at 95 yards. Corrected the OP.
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That is awesome at that distance. Would make for a heck of a spotting scope at 100yds for sure!
 
Finally used mine at my little 70yd range where I mostly shoot 50yds. Man is it overkill, with the stock eyepiece the target fills the image. I think I could count the legs on a bug.
 

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I have had one of these for about a year. It is pretty good at short to medium distances in good conditions, but it is not that great at long range. And it seems particularly bad at dealing with mirage on a hot, sunny day. I stopped using it on the 1000 at FLD altogether and just devoted it to use at 100 yards or on the rimfire range. It is not bad, but it is not exactly great either.

For scale:

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East of Here said:
I have had one of these for about a year. It is pretty good at short to medium distances in good conditions, but it is not that great at long range. And it seems particularly bad at dealing with mirage on a hot, sunny day. I stopped using it on the 1000 at FLD altogether and just devoted it to use at 100 yards or on the rimfire range. It is not bad, but it is not exactly great either.
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Not sure if it will help in those conditions, but have you done the contrast mod? These scopes have a problem with poor contrast in daylight. I did it to mine and the daylight performance was much improved. Check out the results this guy gets:
 
With the lower magnification eyepiece at 175 yards, a 12” plate fills the eye piece and I can see the markings on the bolt heads.
 
The moon’s amazing in this scope.
Is it always difficult to get/hold your eye in just the right spot? Or is that just dependent upon how much you spend?
 
Pink_Vapor said:
The moon’s amazing in this scope.
Is it always difficult to get/hold your eye in just the right spot? Or is that just dependent upon how much you spend?
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It's dependent on the eyepiece. Most astronomical telescopes have very short eye relief. You can get more or less powerful eyepieces and even variable ones. If you wear glasses it's best to either take them off and focus it just for your eyes, or to flip the rubber eye cup back so you can get your glasses right up against the eyepiece, at least that's the way it works for me. Less powerful eyepieces are more forgiving.
 
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I bought this one a couple weeks ago and used it one time out to 525 yards without any problems EXCEPT you need a huge heavy tripod.

Celestron 52252 100mm Ultima Zoom Spotting Scope
 
KnotRight said:
I bought this one a couple weeks ago and used it one time out to 525 yards without any problems EXCEPT you need a huge heavy tripod.

Celestron 52252 100mm Ultima Zoom Spotting Scope
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I have the 80mm version of that: https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-52...49228087&sr=8-3&keywords=Celestron+80mm+Scope and this tripod to go with it: http://www.champchoice.com/store/main.aspx?p=ItemDetailOptions&item=CC700SJC

It's as much as I want to tote around. It can be a little wobbly in the wind; sometimes I wish I had gotten the 3/4" tripod instead of the 5/8". If I were made of money, I would have gotten an LER (long eye relief) eyepiece for it, because my shooting glasses bump into it above 30X or so; but Celestron told me that there was no such critter for that model of scope. Oh well.
 
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