Athlon 20-80 X 86 Cronus CameraLand Winner - 07/11/20
Well I won this spotting scope in the last drawing from Doug. I had been needing a spotting scope for some time now but had just been using my buddies or cousins when we were shooting together. I have also been a novice/amateur astronomer since I was about 20 years old and I am 57 now. I don't have great ( Alpha ) glass in anything although I do have some fairly expensive eye pieces for my telescopes. That is where the money is spent though. So, this Athlon spotting scope seems to be well built and I really like the dual focus adjustment. That works great. I have only at this time used it for about 100 yard viewing and on 20X-40X the image quality is fantastic. Even at the 40X setting I have crystal clear views of birds, hickory nuts, and various other things that one would expect to see in an open field/woodland environment. The edge clarity seem excellent and I had my wife, daughter, and another individual verify this. The MSRP for scope is about $1800 but most are selling it for $1499 and Doug had it on sale for I think $999.00 ( mine was free! ). I guess it is made in China but so is my computer, sun glasses, and many other things. I am impressed with this device. It is supposed to be clear tonight so we will be doing some astronomy viewing with the spotting scope as well as some other devices. I'll be interested to see how it performs. I am also looking forward to getting to our NC mountains in a week or two so I can look at some long distance objects and wildlife. I can't say how it compares to other spotting scopes in this price range but I can say I can't see ever needing anything better.