Features:

  • 80 mm Refractor Spotting Scope. Multi-Coated optics
  • 45° viewing angle. 20-60x zoom eyepiece
  • Waterproof & Soft carrying case. Limited Lifetime Warranty
  • Does not accept filters.Highest Useful Magnification: 189x
  • Twilight factor is 69.2 to 40. Relative brightness is 16 to 1.7
im very happy with it

im very happy with it, very clear and not seeing enough distortion at the edge of the field to be worth mentioning, especially at this price point. Eye relief could be better, but eye cup will fold down , i wear glasses and it wasnt a huge issue.Crisp views at both ends of the zoom. Stars are well defined points , moon was clear and sharp with no noticeable fringing which shows the optics coating work well. At the range the target views were sharp and easy to see the smallest hits at 100 yards, could not test it at longer range but would imagine it would see much farther based on the clarity i saw. the eyepiece fitment begs for more optional accessories. hope they will see fit to offer more in the line of adapters for other ep`s and cameras, a vixen dovetail adapter for the base would be awesome . no regrets

Terrific Scope - Absolutely your best buy

This is an excellent spotting scope for the money. I am using it mostly for birding. The photo above was just taken with my cell phone held up to the eyepiece. I recommend using this scope with a sturdy tripod. My tripod is a SLIK 330DX-B that came with an SH-705E head. When viewing at home I use a gallon jug of water below the tripod for additional stability although this tripod performs well enough without it using this weight of scope. I like the feel of the Celestron Ultima 80. The focusing is easy and very smooth. They are easy to reach in a natural feel. I bought the straight scope because most of what I look at is on the level or nearly so. Most of the birds I am seeing are rather close to the house, within 25 yards. I see much more detail and light gathering than I did with me binoculars. The accessories included with the scope could be better quality. The soft case that came with mine is very light weight plastic so I am not expecting that to hold up on hiking trips. It is handy that it opens at both ends to use in a snow storm I guess since the scope itself is waterproof anyway. I took about 2 weeks to thoroughly research scopes before deciding on this one. I have used a few other scopes borrowed from friends and this one certainly tops anything I have used before. At $185 +- it is a good value. I'm just getting into birding and I can view anywhere on my back two acres to be very efficient for that. You do get what you pay for but unless you have some specific need for very high optics, save your money and buy this one.

Good for this price range and intended use.

I purchased the Celestron 18-55x65 45° spotting scope used in "Very Good" condition from Amazon for $75. It came in the box in all original packaging, and is brand new insofar as I can tell; something to keep in mind when you read the rest of my review. $75 for this scope in seemingly new condition is a great bargain. At that price, and even up to $90, I would say this is a no brainer, and worthy of a 5-star review. Would I purchase new for ~$115? Yes, probably. The relatively low price, functionality, good build quality, and definite fun factor makes this scope a great option depending on what you are trying to achieve with its use. Why minus a star?-- noticeable purple fringing at just over half the zoom capacity. I was originally looking at the 80mm version, knowing that the larger field of view and brightness it would provide would mean better performance, especially in the high zoom range. I was talked out of it by a friend who has a 80mm scope, and told me it wasn't worth the added bulk and weight for the price, especially when considering my intended non-professional use. For some background, I have a $400 pair 8x42 binoculars that can't even compare to all of the other cheaper 8x25, 10x42, porro prisms, etc. binoculars I've owned throughout the years without expensive glass or any fancy coatings. Once I got the 8x42s in my hands, I never wanted to go back to anything less. The brightness, large field of view, and special coatings really do make a difference. That said, when I got the expensive 8x42s I was using them professionally doing bird nesting surveys, where their light-weight and expensive properties really did come in play. I also later got to use a pair of Swarovski EL 10x42 binoculars while doing seabird monitoring/population and productivity counts, and those were by far the best set of binoculars I've ever seen. Later, I also got to use a Zeiss spotting cope for work that was very impressive, but also very expensive. My point is, once you've had a chance to use the greatest, it can be annoying to have to go with anything less, and so I don't want my review to be tainted in comparison to these high-end models because it's like comparing apples to oranges when you go from the $100 to $400-$2500 price range. Now that I'm no longer in that line of work, I don't need (and also don't want to spend so much) on high end optics (though I do admit I want them...). I mostly wanted a spotting scope, however, for higher magnification viewing of birds at feeders in my backyard, and to allow my young son's the opportunity to see wildlife closer up. I remember not being able to really use binoculars properly at their age, and always found myself closing one eye to look through only one objective since I could never get my vision to line up. Focusing clearly was always an issue, and then there was hand-shake, all of which made binoculars not so fun to use. I see them fiddling and struggling to use binoculars as well, and with a scope my hope is to set it up on a stable tripod pointed right at a feeder and have them only have to move the focus ring slightly-- a decent scope at this price range was exactly what I was looking for. I am an amateur photographer, so already have a couple nice and steady tripods to put to use, which is just as important to have for a scope, and should be factored into your purchasing decision (I wouldn't spend less than $100 on a tripod-- just not worth it). OK, now onto the scope itself. It seems well weighted and well balanced, with decent ergonomics and good housing. I like the advertised waterproofness, and hope that it lives up to that claim. Focus ring is smooth, but zoom ring not so much. I find myself wanting to turn at the attachment point of the eyepiece instead of further up closer to the end where it is located. The zoom ring is also stiff, but I imagine it will loosen up in time. Last about the zoom, it's only textured metal, and I'd prefer either a rubberized ring or tab/lever type zoom, but that's not expected in this price range. Other reviewer(s) have mentioned that it would be nice to have a quick focus along with a fine tune focus knob, but as nice as that would be, for me it's really not expected at this price range. Optical clarity is generally good. This scope really shines in the 18-30 zoom range, but starts to drop off in clarity and (dramatically) in field of view once you get to about 35x. Purple fringing is also noticeable around 35x, getting more obvious in the 40s, and is terrible in the 50s. Field of view up to 30x is full, which was expected since it's a 65 objective scope (light availability and field of view is expected to drop off at anything below a 1:5 magnification/objective ratio). Eye relief is perfectly fine, at least for me, and is worth mentioning since reviews seem mixed about this topic. I wear eyeglasses and have astigmatism, so I can't get scopes or binoculars to focus with full clarity without my glasses. Having enough eye relief is therefore a requirement, and I can focus clearly at all zoom levels with this scope. I'd imagine that some of the negative reviews about eye relief could involve not pulling back the rubber eye-cup. I've found that without pulling back the eye-cup, I can still focus the scope with my glasses on at 18x, but once I start zooming I need to get closer and pulling back the eye-cup is a necessity. Another option is to remove the rubber eye-cup altogether; I accidentally removed mine while fiddling with it. What I don't like about having to "peal back" the eye-cup is that it's annoying to switch over viewing with non-eyeglass wearers that prefer the better light eliminating properties of looking through the eye-cup. And when viewing birds, switching over when sharing the scope is a constant. I also imagine that over time with repeated folds it will eventually break down and fall off, but time will tell. On my nicer binoculars this is solved by having eye-cups that twist up and down, which is a great design, but again, not expected at this price point. Last thing I want to mention about this spotting scope is the "finder scope". While using it today I was thinking how I wish it had a basic finder scope, since it can be difficult to track down where birds have landed not too far away, even at 18x, and especially when using in tight spaces such as my backyard. Then I noticed on the left side of the scope it has "finder scope" in the form of a straw-like appendage attached to the upper left side of the body. No optics involved, which makes sense at this zoom range. Your naked eye works just fine to point the scope close enough in the right direction to find what you want to look at before looking through the lens. When I first saw that appendage I thought it was for adding some type of accessory. I actually thought at one point that perhaps it's an attachment point for a finder scope, but then realized, duh, it is the finder scope itself! Maybe obvious to some or most, but not to me at first, so thought I'd mention it. Overall I think this was a great purchase, especially at $75, but I would probably pay another $40 to get one now that I have had the chance to use it. I feel that all of the trade offs are fair and expected at this price point, and that overall the scope is very good for my intended purchase. The main thing I would like improved is the purple fringing and clarity at higher zoom. Light and field of view fall off was expected based on the specs, but I wasn't expecting purple fringing and soft edges to occur until the very highest zoom range. That said, it's a fair trade off for the price, and for my backyard birding and other intended uses, I will only rarely be using it in the 35-55 zoom range anyway. ***** UPDATE ***** After having some more time to use this scope, I've updated my review from 4 to 5 stars. The reason is that it is actually quite sharp at full zoom, and I had initially thought it wasn't due to other obstructions altering the view, such as heat waves and poor air quality. I had the chance of using the scope in the afternoon, viewing objects not in direct sunlight, and was able to get perfectly clear imaging all the way to 55x, without soft edges and without purple fringing (which is usually an aberration caused by too much sun light). The field of view is also full from 18x all the way to 55x. I realized what I had been doing was not getting my eye close enough to the objective when in the higher zoom ranges. The eye relief is actually not as good as I had hoped and thought, and in order to see the full field of view I really have to squash my eye glasses right up to the lens and press down a bit. It is do-able, but not as comfortable or easy as it could be if there was more eye relief. But although eye relief is not as good as I originally thought, at least there are no issues with minimized field of view or soft edges as I had thought was the case before. Based on high clarity in ideal conditions, I had to go back and change my initial 4-star review to 5. The limits of this lens do not apply all of the time and do not apply to everyone (i.e., non-eye glass wearers), and it's not the fault of the scope for not having high end lens coatings or HD glass; those features are aptly found on more expensive lenses. As expected, this scope doesn't do more than it's advertised to do, and does exactly what it is advertised to do at a very reasonable price and with a nice form to function ratio.

spotting scope as telephoto lens.

I bought this as a low cost telephoto lens for my Canon t6. Works great. I was a little worried about how well moon shots would come out, considering the only adjustments I could make are iso and shutter speed. To my surprise, they turned out excellent. See the attached. This picture was taken with iso set at 400 and shutter set at 1/4 second and it is a little over exposed. I am going to try again with a faster shutter speed and more magnification, and hopefully get more crater detail. You can only use this in manual mode but I expected that. My only complaint is that the end caps could have been better designed. The cap for the big end falls off rather easily. When I attach it, I snap into place then slowly turn it clockwise facing the end until I hear a snap then it is seated properly and it won't fall off quite as easily. There are 2 rubber end caps for the eye piece, one larger than the other. The small one will fit over the threads that the T adapter screws onto but that is not much to grab onto. Fortunately, the larger one which is also longer fits snugly over the smaller one and the two used together make a good end cap and less likely to fall off. The cons of this device: heavy and takes some effort to position, again 2 qualities I expected. It is a big scope after all.

Sample rifle target photos

Added 2/9/2016: I've used it on 300-yard targets now, and my .223" / 5.56 mm holes are visible, especially on white paper. Holes in the colored part are harder, of course, but visible. I also want to mention that the focus knob is perfect. It turns easily and smoothly, without being loose. It's placed on top, just behind the tripod mounting point, so you can rest your hand over the balance point of the scope and gently roll one finger over the focus knob, causing very little motion in the image. [Original text -->] I read a lot of reviews and Q & A's on Amazon before purchasing the Celestron 80mm Ultima Zoom, and I have a little to add for future shoppers. While I hope to use this for viewing wildlife and maybe the moon and neighboring planets, I bought it mainly for rifle shooting, to see little holes in paper downrange. The photos I'm posting today are all the same shot through the scope, left full-frame to show how my smartphone camera sees it, and cropped to better see the holes. The target is 200 yards away, and the holes are .223 inch / 5.56mm. The grid lines on the targets are spaced at 1 inch / 25mm. Camera was an LG G4 smartphone, mounted to the Celestron's eyepiece with a Gosky Universal Cell Phone Adapter Mount, also purchased from Amazon. Photo conditions were less than ideal: a very gray afternoon, shooting through 200 yards of light rain. The full-frame photo was reduced in size from 5212 x 2988 down to 1600 x 900, in hopes Amazon won't ruin it with extreme compression. The other two were severely cropped, but left at full resolution to show detail. It was taken at 60X, the maximum zoom, and the image suffers a bit from being pushed to the max, but not terribly. The colors aren't as sharp as at the lower end of the zoom range, and as other reviewers have mentioned, that's a compromise. If you want perfect sharpness through the whole zoom range, buy the ED (Extra Dispersion) version of the scope. It's built with lens elements made of more exotic glass that corrects the focus of the different colors of light. It will cost you about 4 times as much. This Ultima 80 is good enough for me. Something I hadn't noticed until I viewed the photos is the curvature of the bottom board of the target frame. That's not bent wood, it's a defect of the scope, called pincushion distortion. If I was using the scope for some kind of architectural photography, where straight lines must show straight, this would be a problem, but I bought this to see where holes are punched in paper, and a bit of curvature is no problem at all. If you're photographing duck on a pond surface and don't want your water horizon to be curved, position the scope so that horizon is in the center of the frame. The top board of the target frame is centered, and it doesn't look bent at all. Better yet, back off the zoom to a lower ratio and get straighter lines and a sharper image. The two detail shots aren't perfectly sharp, but more than good enough to see every hole, even the ones in the dark blue target. I'm impressed. The range I go to also has targets at 300 yards. That might be pushing this scope's capability. I'll try it some time when I have better weather and have settled on ammunition I can trust to fly straight that far. On the drive home from the range I passed a tree with a huge new nest in it, and today a bald eagle was perched near it. But I was cold and tired, and if I'd stopped and got out of the car to reach the scope in the back, the eagle would have left. Would have been a great inaugural wildlife shot for my new spotting scope, but I'm left with only the memory of it, and you'll have to picture it in your mind until you get your own spotting scope and venture into eagle country. Hope you like yours; it's just right for me, at a price I can justify.

High quality scope for the price, albeit its heavy weight and requirement for a heavy duty tripod.

I use spotting scopes for several purposes: Star Gazing, Looking around the valley, target shooting, enjoying the moon, and bird watching from home. We live on a mountain view home with a moderate sized piece of land. A nylon carrying bag is a provided but it is not protective in the sense of drops or shock. The covers for the objective and eyepiece are rudimentary. This scope doesn't come with a tripod. It needs a heavyweight stable base to work well, particularly at high magnification. This has a stabilizing bar that gives a more secure feel. The zoom is functional, and it does work out to the highest level. However, due to effects of sun, it can make for an indistinct view. The focus is adjusted in the front part of the body. The zoom is adjusted just under the eyepiece. For the money, it's a great quality scope. It's not a Swarovski or Vortex, but it's good enough for me. I can sight buildings and tractor trailer trucks several miles away. I can see the street conditions a few miles away. The scope works well out to 150 yards. There weren't any targets available at 250 yards. I could see shoot and see hits very distinctly. The biggest and major negative is size and weight. It's bigger than the average more practical scope, but I'm adaptable. I purchased a large carbon fiber tripod for this and it works extremely well. Overall, I'm very pleased.

these are FAR superior in nearly every way

This is one slick scope for such a low, low price. We now have 4 of them out on our 200 yard rifle range and when standing next to the Konus 20-60x80 we have there is no comparison...these are FAR superior in nearly every way! These Celestron's cost half as much and are FAR brighter in any weather and resolve 30 cal holes at 200 yards with no difficulty at all. 22's are a little tougher at 200 on standard service rifle targets. I did pick up an adapter for my iPhone to attach to this scope and it resolves 22's clear as day at 200 yards on a black center target with black berm material behind it! I HIGHLY recommend this scope for any and all service rifle guy's/gal's out there (although I would recommend the angle eye piece version).

Excellent for birding, but you will need a backpack to carry it.

Excellent clarity of image even at great distance. I do not see any blue halo's that sometimes occur with cheap scopes. Nice zoom feature and fine focus adjust. Powerful magnification really brings the birds up close. Just as a warning, it is a big scope, a bit larger and heavier than a 2L bottle of soda. So It will need to be carried in a sturdy backpack along with a sturdy tripod. If you want a very portable unit, you might want to go for the smaller version of this scope. I also purchased the Amazon Basics 60 inch Lightweight tripod with bag and it works well with this scope. The angled lens makes it easy to share viewing with friends when you have it set on the tripod.

Great, clear optics!

I was on the fence of spending the money and getting a Vortex spotting scope. The main reason why is because Vortex has a lifetime warranty on their products. You break it for whatever reason, they'll replace it for free. But that Vortex spotting scope was about $400. I figured since I normally try to take care of my stuff and don't thrash it, I'd take my chances on the more less expensive Celestron spotting scope ($139). I would mainly use the spotting scope for when I sight in a rifle and occasionally get a closer look at some of the wildlife in my backyard. Maybe look at the moon. So my use of the spotting scope would be minimal. I received my spotting scope and played with it the next day. I was impressed. The optics were clear. I was happy. I can see airplanes land about 10 miles away. It was getting shaky and fuzzy that far away but I can see them. I'd never really use them that far but that goes to show how powerful this spotting scope is and it's clear. I also ordered an Amazon brand 60 inch tripod. It's a must have if you're going to use this spotting scope. It'll be less shaky compared to just holding it with your hand. I'd buy it again if I had to.

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