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More Information Price $429.50 List Price $800.95 Magnification 24x Field of view 1000 yards 116' Near Focus 20' Eye Relief 16mm Exit Pupil 3.33mm Twilight Factor 43.82 Weight 7.5 lbs. Aperture 3.1" Length 22" Armored No Waterproof No Warranty Limited Lifetime Photographic Focal Length 600mm Photographic Focal Ratio f/7.5

Unlike conventional spotting scopes, which use proprietary bayonet-mount eyepiece holders that accept only the scope manufacturer’s eyepieces, this Celestron uses an American standard 1.25" (31.7mm) diameter eyepiece holder. This accepts more than 150 different 1.25" astronomical eyepieces from different manufacturers that can be found in the eyepiece section on the astronomics side of this website. You can add eyepieces to tailor the magnification and field of view of the scope precisely to your requirements with the Celestron C80ED, something you can’t do with other spotting scopes that have a more limited range of available optics.

At 7.5 lbs., the C80ED is not a scope many observers will want to carry on all-day birding hikes. In addition, it is not armored or waterproofed to withstand heavy showers or abuse in the field. The Celestron C80ED is better suited to observing over a variety of distances from a weather-protected fixed observing location, rather than carrying in the field. But it doesn’t matter whether your fixed location is the porch of a home with a view or a favorite nature preserve overlook. Wherever you put the scope, the C80ED will show you more detail, more clearly, and more accurately than many other scopes many times its reasonable cost.

Features of this Celestron spotting scope . . .

Its 80mm objective gathers over 66% more light than a 62mm scope (and over 51% more than a 65mm scope) for brighter images and markedly better low light performance than either. The larger aperture means higher resolution, too.

The optical system uses a doublet lens with one element of costly ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass. This provides excellent color correction and razor sharp images for serious nature and bird watchers and virtually eliminates the chromatic aberration usually seen during planetary and lunar viewing.

The optics are fully multicoated to maximize light transmission, clarity, and contrast.

The scope has a 6 x 30mmm crosshair finderscope to make finding distant subjects easy. The low-power finderscope shows you images that are upright and right-reading, just as you see things with your unaided eye and through the scope itself (printing is correctly oriented, for example).

The scope comes with a 45° viewing angle image-erecting diagonal that accepts standard 1.25" diameter eyepieces. The standard eyepiece is a 25mm four-element Plössl that provides a magnification of 24x and a 116’ field of view at 1000 yards. It has a usable eye relief of 16mm, for virtually unvignetted views when wearing eyeglasses.

The following optional economy eyepieces provide different magnifications and fields of view, but have varying amounts of eye relief. They may vignette the image more than desired at high powers for those who must wear eyeglasses while observing:
Celestron 40mm Omni Plössl, 15x, 151’ field at 1000 yards, 5.3mm exit pupil, 18mm eye relief.
Celestron 15mm Omni Plössl, 40x, 66’ field at 1000 yards, 2.0mm exit pupil, 9mm eye relief.
Celestron 9mm Omni Plössl, 67x, 39’ field at 1000 yards, 1.2mm exit pupil, 4mm eye relief.
Celestron 6mm Omni Plössl, 100x, 26’ field at 1000 yards, 0.8mm exit pupil, 2mm eye relief.

The following optional six-element Celestron X-CEL eyepieces are a little more expensive than the Omnis above, but all offer a full 20mm eye relief for eyeglass wearers and an ED glass element for an image quality that matches that of the C80ED scope itself:
Celestron 18mm X-CEL, 33x, 87’ field at 1000 yards, 2.4mm exit pupil, 20mm eye relief.
Celestron 12.5mm X-CEL, 48x, 60’ field at 1000 yards, 1.7mm exit pupil, 20mm eye relief.
Celestron 8mm X-CEL, 75x, 38’ field at 1000 yards, 1.1mm exit pupil, 20mm eye relief.
Celestron 5mm X-CEL, 120x, 24’ field at 1000 yards, 0.7mm exit pupil, 20mm eye relief.

The C80ED has a close focus in the 20’ range, making it very suitable for backyard observing, as well as viewing at a distance.

The scope’s rack and pinion focuser has large ribbed focusing knobs, making it easy to focus in cold weather when wearing gloves or mittens.

For terrestrial observing and casual astronomy, the C80ED has a mounting shoe with a 1/4"-20 thread hole that fits on any photo tripod having a standard 1/4"-20 thread mounting bolt. In addition, the mounting shoe doubles as a dovetail mount that will let you install the C80ED directly on a Celestron Advanced Series equatorial or go-to astronomical mount to use the scope for serious astronomical observing and photography. The mounting shoe dovetail will also fit the Meade LXD-75 equatorial mount or the Vixen Sphinx go-to or Great Polaris Deluxe equatorial mounts.

A camera-type snap-in objective lens cover protects the optics when the scope is not in use.

The scope’s 45-degree viewing angle is generally more comfortable than a straight-through scope for watching treetop activity or for extended observing from a blind or back porch. It is also more convenient for observing couples of varying heights who must share a single scope, as there’s little need to constantly raise and lower the tripod to a comfortable height for each observer.

The focuser drawtube terminates in a 2" eyepiece holder so you can use an optional 2" star diagonal for astronomical observing. For terrestrial observing, a 1.25" eyepiece adapter fits into the 2" drawtube to hold the 1.25" image-erecting diagonal. This 1.25" adapter has external T-threads that let you use the C80ED as a very high quality 600mm (12x) f/7.5 telephoto lens by simply adding an inexpensive T-ring to connect your 35mm camera body to the 1.25" eyepiece adapter.