Telescope Reviews: Review Barska XTremeView 8x40

Did not see this one reviewed on CN, so here's mine:

I bought the Barska XTremeView 8x40 based on the spec-sheet after quite a bit of comparison. Combination of price (under $50) wide FOV and eye relief were what I was looking for. Shipping from Amazon was prompt and well wrapped. The
usual specs are engraved (498 ft @...) and says 'Made in China'.

There is a slight blue color to the lens coating (maybe a hint of green too), but still some ambient external reflection when looking at the lenses. Pleasant surprise: this model has a diopter adjust and a tripod mount, not mentioned in the features. The width and focus adjust is smooth and a bit tight: seems like the adjustment stays put. Focus wheel spins about a full revolution, so you get pretty good fine adjustment.
The minimum width brings both optical halves touching together and corresponds to a bit under 60mm IPD; the max is fairly wide- probably about 80mm IPD. Eyelens measures about 24mm diameter, and eye relief w/ glasses on is
quite adequate.

I needed to set width carefully: straight ahead viewing was occluded by the internals if you set the width even a bit too wide. And when looking off center, the view looked totally blocked by the internals. You can compensate somewhat by widening the adjustment. I didn't expect the width setting to be so critical- a big disappointment here. TFOV spec is 498', and the AFOV looks like it's about 70 degrees. Close focus was better than 25 ft.

For nighttime viewing, the offcenter averted-occlusion was almost unnoticable. Able to see Orions belt in about 60% of the field and either half of Cassiopia 'W' in 100% FOV.

I think there's some minor blurring or aberration as you view off-center, but I don't know how to characterize it. For astronomical viewing this seemed fine.

For the off center 'occlusion' issue I give this a 3 out of 5- average. Otherwise this is a good value for the money .

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PapaJohn
Orion XT4.5
Tasko 10x50
Barska 8x40

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