Celestron 52308 9-27 x 56 mm Hummingbird ED Micro Spotter Birder-Friendly Spotting Scope, Black

Ordered as a birthday treat to myself. It's tiny, but powerful. Useful for when a full size spotter is too heavy or ostentatious. Great to carry on hikes in a rucksack with a monopod or a lightweight carbon fibre tripod. Only negative comment is that the included zoom eyepiece is not brilliant and struggles with either the lowest zoom setting (apparent field of view is pretty tiny) or the higher end of the zoom range where it loses sharpness and dims a fair bit. It's ok for convenience, but budgeting for a couple of higher quality fixed eyepieces (or a better zoom) is very much recommended. I purchased a 25mm and a 9mm celestron X-cel eyepiece and they work great with this spotter. With the 25mm eyepiece you get an 8x zoom and a decent apparent field of view. With this low mag eyepiece the view is razor sharp, and super bright. The 9mm at the higher end zoom also performs much better than the supplied zoom. The interchangeable eyepiece capability is great! I've also tried it out for a bit of digiscoping which with a decent smartphone gives excellent results, particularly with the 25mm eyepiece. I can use the telephoto lens on my phone to get a bit more zoom if I need to, but with a lovely bright and sharp image.For the price I think this is great quality. I found the supplied bag a good fit, the zip is snug at the eyepiece end, but not over tight.I'm very pleased and I'm looking forward to getting out and about with it more in the future!

This is a brilliant scope for bird watching or other nature watching, especially when hiking. Its actually easy to hold and use, but better on a monopod.Its really light and very bright.One thing to note, it does not work with the Celestron phone adaptor. Its not possible to get the phone flat with the Celestron adaptor and even if you do, you get a circular image in the middle of the screen, not a full image you can use for a photo.

When reviewing this scope, I kept one thing in mind. At £260, you're not going to get Swarovski clarity and you don't. What you do get are very bright, clear images, even at the high end magnification. I haven't tried it in night light yet, as it only arrived in the last hour (7.30pm) and I have yet to try digiscoping with it. As soon as I do, I'll post an update.The case is FAR less impressive! In fact, it's nothing more than a cheap point & shoot camera bag, shaped to fit and it's FAR too small for the scope. Expect to spend 10 mins trying to squeeze it into the case. Celestron have a cheek to supply such a pathetic excuse for a case, with a scope that is not exactly inexpensive and they really need to up their game here.In conclusion, I would say go for it! Optics are sharp at this price point and it is worth the price. It's well constructed, focus and zoom are relatively smooth and for its size, it feels solid. The bag, however, is pathetic and you should look for another option, or do without.

Wow... Just WOW !I've been birdwatching for some time already and I have to say this scope is just a gem among birdwatching optics !1. Clarity and brightness in low light ! yes yes yes!2. Great middle ground between binoculars and spotting scope - can be easily handheld because its 45° eyepiece - you just hold it tight , close to your body. I manage even 27x mag to look steady by hand - but midrange magnifications everyone can manage stable.3.VERY PRECISE FOCUS !4. bag a bit tight but fits scope no problemo5. great as telephoto lens to my iphone ( with attachment )

Easy to hold and focus, plus accepts any standard eyepiece so isn't limited to the one that comes with it. Bright and stable, although you're going to need a tripod at longer magnifications.

quality product bought as a gift and was well received - love it

works great with baader hyperion mark IV zoom, which puts the stock celestron zoom to shame.tiny but powerful scope, love it

I am pleased with the scope - just what I was after in terms of optics, size etc.However, I feel compelled to comment purely because of the case. I quite simply cannot get the scope into the case, as it is too tight a fit. I have just seen other reviews talking about the size of the bag.I have written to Celestron tech support, partly because I suspected they may have included the case for the 50mm version by accident.If I get a satisfactory response, I will update this post. However, not too impressed as a long-standing Celestron fan.Update 12 May 23Kudos to Celestron USA for a really swift response, which resulted in a new case being sent. However, ...... it had precisely the same issue, and I cannot get the scope into either of the 2 cases. Clearly a design flaw and a lack of quality control that I would not have expected from Celestron. I will be writing to tell them and I am considering whether to return the scope and look elsewhere.