Review on 🔭 Gosky 20-60x80 Dual Focusing ED Spotting Scope: Ultimate Optics for Shooting, Hunting, Bird Watching, Astronomy, and More! by Mike Hamelin

Summary (TL/DR): The scope's optics were good enough to see .22LR holes in a splatterburst target very clearly at 200 yards. It's way better than the $60 options that have already run out. The sight is well done. The carry case is just "good" and doesn't offer much protection. The phone adapter seems a bit cheap, but it's functional and relatively easy to set up. The tripod mount and pan ring are excellent, but I wish the locking knob was more accessible when mounting. Lifetime warranty with seemingly responsive customer service, and this scope really represents value for money. Full Review - Unboxing: I bought a GoSky 20-60x80 UHD spotting scope to replace a $60 Redfield spotting scope that I can't find anymore. This is my starting point for this review. The packaging ensured the GoSky was not damaged in transit and it was well packaged. GoSky is equipped with: 1. The sight itself is assembled, with covers for the eyepiece and for the 80mm side. The scope has a built-in tripod mount with a standard ¼-20 screw and a large "plate" so that the Arca-Swiss tripod adapter fits perfectly.2. "Bag" to carry - suitcase is not quite the right word (see below).3. cleaning cloth.4. Adapter for shooting through the sight with a smartphone.5. Warranty card and quick start guide for scope and adapter. Compared to the Redfield, this scope is physically larger and heavier. The Redfield I had was a "straight" scope and this Gosky is an angled one. The Redfield had a "protective/soft cover" that covered the entire scope and allowed you to "remove" the protection to reveal the mount, controls, etc. This protective case has been additionally protected by a soft carrying case. The GoSky scope becomes "naked" after you remove it from the carrying case. I believe the carrying case is the biggest downside to this scope (see below). optics and controls. To test the quality of the GoSky optics, I mounted an 8" splatterburst target on my mailbox that I had shot in .22LR many times before. Then I used the dial and went back to 600 feet (200 yards, the longest distance I usually shoot) and mounted the scope on my professional Giottos tripod with ball head and Arca-Swiss plate. Then I set the magnification to 20x and found and centered the target in my field of view. I focused the scope first with the coarse focus knob and then with the fine focus knob. In this position I fixed the tripod and then adjusted the optics to 60x. After slightly adjusting and refocusing the tripod, I fixed the tripod on the target. The optical quality of the sight was excellent. I could easily see my shots at 200 yards, which I couldn't with the lower quality Redfield I had before. My test was at dusk and the lights actually went out and I would expect even more light is even better. I didn't really know how good dual focus would be for sharpening an image, especially at 600 yards and 60x. Although I have never used other UHD scopes before, I was very impressed with the quality of this scope and it is more than enough for me. You can see in the close-up of my target that there were two bullseye shots and they were correctly resolved by the scope at 200 yards and 60x. Feedback" - they weren't too hard to turn and they weren't too loose. The zoom ring is a bit tight but I think it will loosen up with a little use. They are where you would expect them to be. My only one Criticism was that after mounting the scope on a tripod, the thumbscrew to rotate the scope was difficult to reach as it was very close to the Arca-Swiss plate (see iPhone 11. It definitely feels a bit 'cheap' " on). - the plastic and screws seem pretty flimsy, but seem to work. The phone mount has enough adjustability to place camera phones left or right as well as centered - I had to flip it to fit the camera on the side that sits on my phone but it was easy I didn't know which of the two lenses on the phone to use so I lined up one by one until I got a clear image on the phone screen received scope with 60x magnification "fixed" on the target in the focus of the eyepiece, I attached the phone adapter to the spotting scope. In doing so, I may have tripped over the scope enough to lose target lock, which we weren't a real surprise at 200 yards and 60x magnification. With some fiddling, I was able to locate the target again (by looking at my phone). I may have gotten it wrong, but the photo was pretty small on screen, showing only a circle that took up maybe 15% of the screen in the center. The rest of the screen was black - see photo I've attached. I think "zooming" the phone's screen would be a good idea, but I didn't do it to avoid introducing optical artifacts for this review. The whole thing was a bit clunky, but functional. I'm a little worried about the phone mount's durability due to its design, and I'm a little concerned about attaching a "heavy" object to the scope's eyepiece. But I could envision using it on the shooting range so I don't have to keep looking through the scope to identify my shots. I could also imagine using it to "sequence" shots (e.g. zeroing in a new lens - taking a picture after each one to see how the settings are achieved during zeroing). Touching the phone at high magnification produced blurry images, so a self-timer or remote shutter will most likely need to be used to get clearer shots. The photos I've attached are actually much worse than what the scope looks like through the eyepiece, so *PLEASE* don't judge the optical quality by that, it's MUCH better through the eyepiece. See photos. Carrying case I have attached some photos of the carrying case. And that's it, a tote bag. The scope has minimal protection other than cosmetic protection as the pouch is barely filled. I would be afraid of dropping the scope in that bag (my old Redfield would have most likely survived there). I'll probably buy another case, wrap it in a towel or memory foam, or do something else to cushion the scope. The bag is "roomy" enough to fit this. The quality of the bag (wish it was a 'suitcase') was by far my biggest downside of the whole product. See photo.