Gosky 20-60x80 Dual Focusing ED Spotting Scope - Ultra High Definition Optics Scope with Carrying Case and Smartphone Adapter for Target Shooting Hunting Bird Watching Wildlife Astronomy Scenery

Summary (TL/DR): The optics of this scope were sufficient to see .22LR holes in a Splatterburst target at 200 yds very clearly. It is much better than $60 variants that are all over. The scope is well made. The carrying bag is just “ok” and doesn’t provide much protection. The phone adapter feels a little cheap but was functional and relatively easy setup. The tripod mount and rotation ring is excellent, but I wish the locking knob were more accessible when mounted. Lifetime warranty with what seems like responsive customer service and this scope is really good value for the money.Detailed Review – Unboxing:I purchased the GoSky 20-60x80 UHD Spotting scope as a replacement for a $60 Redfield scope which I cannot find anymore. That’s my reference point for this review. The packaging ensured the GoSky does not get damaged in transit, and it was well packed. The GoSky came equipped with:1. The Scope itself, fully assembled, with lens covers for the eyepiece and for the 80mm side. There is a tripod mount built-in to the scope, which has a standard ¼-20 screw and a sizeable “plate” such that an Arca-Swiss Tripod adapter would fit nicely.2. A carrying “bag” – a case isn’t quite the right word for it (see below).3. A cleaning cloth.4. An adapter to take photos through the scope using your smartphone.5. Warranty card and quick start instructions for both the scope and the adapter.Compared to the Redfield, this scope is physically larger and heavier. The Redfield I had was a “Straight” through sight picture, whereas this Gosky is angled. The Redfield had a “protective/padded cover” encasing the entire scope, and it allowed you to “peel off” the protections to expose the mount, the controls, etc. That protective cover was further protected by the padded carrying bag. The GoSky scope is “naked” after you remove it from the carry bag. I feel the carrying bag is this scope’s biggest demerit (see below).Optics & controls:To test the optical quality of the GoSky, I setup an 8” Splatterburst target that I had previously shot with .22LR numerous times on my mailbox. I then used a measuring wheel and walked 600’ away (200 yds, about the farthest I normally shoot), and setup the scope on my Giottos professional camera tripod with ball head and Arca-Swiss plate. I then set the magnification to 20x and located and centered the target in my view. I focused the scope first with the coarse focus knob, and then with the fine focus knob. I locked the tripod down in this position, and I then adjusted the optics to 60x. After some slight adjustment of the tripod and refocusing, I had the tripod locked on the target.The optical quality of the scope was excellent. I could easily make out my shots at 200 yds, something I couldn’t really do with the lower quality Redfield I had before. My test was at dusk and light was actually fading, and I expect that with even more light it would be even better. I didn’t really appreciate how nice the dual-focus would be for really sharpening the image, especially at 600 yds and 60x magnification. Although I have never used other UHD spotting scopes before, I was very impressed with the quality of this one, and it more than does the job for me. You can see from the close-up view of my target, there were two shots in the bullseye, and they were resolved properly by the scope at 200 yds and 60x.During use, I found the controls to be smooth and provide good “tactile feedback” – they were not too hard to turn and they were not too loose either. The zoom ring is a little tight, but I think it will loosen with a little use. They are located where you expect them to be. My only gripe was that after mounting the scope to my tripod, the thumb screw to allow the scope to rotate was hard to access, as it was very close to the arca-swiss plate (see photo)Phone MountI tested the phone mount with my iPhone 11. It definitely seems a little “cheap” – the plastic and screws seem rather fragile. But it seems to do the job. The phone mount has enough adjustment to accommodate phones with a camera on the left or right, as well as the center – I had to reverse it from the way it shipped to accommodate the camera on the side it exists on my phone, but that was simple. I didn’t know which lens of the two on the phone to use, so I lined one at a time up until I got a clear image on the phone screen. Then, with the scope “locked” onto the target at 60x, in focus for the eyepiece, I mounted the phone adapter to the spotting scope. In the process, I may have bumped the scope enough to lose target acquisition, which wasn’t a real surprise at 200 yds and 60x. After a little fiddling, I was able to reacquire the target (while looking at the phone). I may have been doing it wrong, but the photo was rather small on the screen, showed only a circle that took up maybe 15% of the screen in the center. The rest of the screen was black – see the photo I included. I think maybe “zooming” on the phone screen would have been a good idea, but I didn’t do it soas not to introduce any optical artifacts for the sake of this review. While the whole thing was a little awkward, it was functional. I worry slightly about the longevity of the phone mount due to its construction, and I am a bit worried about attaching a “heavy” object to the eyepiece of the scope. But I could see myself using it at the range to not have to continually put my eye up to the scope to spot my shots. Further, I could see myself using it to “sequence” the shots (for example during zeroing of a new optic - taking a photo after each, to be able to see how corrections to the shot zeroing process are being achieved). Tapping the phone at high magnification created blurry images, so using a timer or remote trigger would likely be needed for clearer shots. The photos I have included are actually a lot worse than what the scope looks like through the eyepiece, so *PLEASE* don’t judge the optical quality from that, it is CONSIDERABLY better through the eyepiece. See photos.Carry BagI have included some photos of the carry bag. And it is just that, a carry bag. There is minimal protection for the scope other than cosmetically, since the bag is barely padded. I would be scared to drop the scope while in this bag (where my old Redfield would likely survive). I will probably buy a different case, wrap it in a towel or memory foam, or do something to otherwise pad the scope. The bag is “roomy” enough to accommodate that. The quality of the bag (I wish it were a “case”) was by far my biggest demerit on the overall product. See photos.

A couple of years ago I was in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone observing a wolf den. Everyone knew where it was about a mile or more away. My camera with a 200-600 zoom and Sony full frame (but) cropped image was insufficient. There was a local guide with a Swarovski scope and cell phone attached. His image was significantly better and the use of the cellphone for image gathering (digiscoping) provided easy to view and larger images. One of his promos was a local Gardiner outlet for renting similar scopes. Short term rentals give users an opportunity to use expensive scopes without the multi-thousand investment, along with being able to catch images otherwise unavailable.Fast forward to bird watching in a local Washington State flatland area - known for winter activity of owls, eagles, ducks, terns, and multiple other avians. Scanning with binoculars, I saw some wing spans indicating owls. My fellow birdwatchers went to work. And, in a couple of minutes announced “there it is… a short tail owl..see it?” Yeah, just barely with my binoculars rattling around in my hand. The camera was useless. Fortunately, the owl hung around long enough to let them find it with their own moderately priced Nikon scope. It was nice to at least catch a quick glimpse of this owl, unavailable to me with any of the optics I had in my possession.Optics matter. And as a point of trying to find something significantly less expensive than a $2500 Swarovski scope, I started looking around. As a photographer I knew I wanted fidelity. Some limited color fringing, but not as much as I had seen during some reviews on other offerings in this price range. As good as possible center focal points. A properly dampened focus knob. As much light as I could get with as much magnification as I could afford. There are plenty of reviews to parse online. I ended up choosing this GoSky model because of a video I viewed of the actual imagery.So far, I am just using it in my backyard that has a view of some native space behind my house. Color fidelity is good with no fringing. For any of these lower end less heavy scopes, brightness can always be better. Max magnification is not the best, but I was ready for the lack of detail at that extreme. The use of a cell phone using the standard (provided) accessory was not great and I ended up buying a better adjustable one (here on Amazon, Tridaptor Universal Digiscoping Adapter) that allows much more exact positioning of the lens on your multi-lens cellphone. My overall opinion is that this is a good beginner scope that will let me decide if I want to jump up in the hobby to a better scope, maybe one that will take an adapter for my camera. I will have to look around at my fellow wildlife observers and ask more questions!

I know reviews get mixed up under items, so there's no confusion, I'm giving 5 stars to the Gosky 20-60x80 Dual Focusing ED Spotting Scope - Ultra High Definition Optics Scope. This is the cheapest scope I could find that didn't have chromatic aberrations (the red/blue outlines on viewed subjects)I sent back 3 other scopes because they all just had way too much of a color halo around the birds I'm trying to film or photograph.At the right price on black Friday (around $250) this is the perfect beginner digi-scoping scope!