Celestron 52303 Regal Refractor 100mm F-ED Spotting Scope

Excellent Buy for an ED Scope
So far I have been very impressed with this spotting scope. I spent 2 months reading various blogs and going o stores and looking through scopes from a $200 Burris to a $1300 Kowa, and Nikons. In the end I knew it would be worth spending the extra for a real ED optic (using real fluorite glass), but I wanted to keep the price down. This scope is very clear and has an very large objective lens to gather light which aids in seeing detail. They also make the same scope in an 80mm and 65mm for hikers and birders. I bought the 100mm scope for target shooting and wanted every bit of help finding tiny holes on paper, but have not gone to the range yet. I have used it in Yosemite to view the mountain tops and the moon though. I could see birds sitting on trees on top of Yosemite and the moon appears almost 3 dimensional. The moon is so bright through the scope that you almost squint and this is only half full. Most zoom eye pieces are optically good for the first 70% of their range with...
Great scope with marginal slip case - SLIP CASE UPGRADED
[...] - Celestron has revised their slip case for this scope and the new version now fits correctly. They courteously shipped a free replacement to me. Good customer service. I have upgraded my rating to five stars.
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Have used Celestron C-5 mirror-scope for ten years (we are birders). Have had Kowa TSN-883 Prominar ED 88mm for a year (wife's toy) and it is a great scope. The C-5 is great for lots of light gathering but falls short in depth of field, flops the image right to left, and, lacking mass, tends to shake even with a sand-filled drape over it on a massive tripod. I elected to replace the C-5 so checked a number of scopes and chose this one. The other reviewer covered lots of ground which I won't repeat (yes, it's big, etc.). I find the light gathering to be slightly better than the Kowa (100mm vs 88mm, so it should) but slightly less than the C-5 (100mm vs 127mm). However, the extra mass of this scope on the same tripod greatly reduces shake and, with the...
Outstanding Scope at a Low Price
This is a big scope, but it offers bright, crisp images that smaller scopes can't deliver. They just don't have the light-gathering capability of a large scope. The ED fluorite glass really presents sparkling images. I am a range officer at a large, active shooting range. In this position I have the opportunity to sample a huge variety of spotting scopes that the range members use. Regardless of price, I haven't sampled any scope that equals the image quality of this large Celestron spotting scope. The images of distant targets are presented so clearly that it's like standing next to the target. Buy smart and buy once!
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