Hawke Endurance 60 and 70 mm telescopes

No less likely to cause a stir than the appearance of a new telescope at the top end of the market, the new Hawke Endurance range, launched earlier this year along with the Frontier range from the same company (Birdwatch 171: 44), represents some of the most competitively priced scopes now available to birders.

Unlike the larger Frontier range, the Endurance scopes are available in both angled and straight-bodied designs and, as I found out, they are light in weight, well constructed and generally user friendly. I tried out the angled versions of the relatively small 60 mm scope, with a 20-60x magnification zoom eyepiece, and the mid-sized 70 mm scope fitted with a 23-73x zoom.

Considering their position at the lower end of the market, both scopes performed surprisingly well. A fibreglass-based material forms a robust body which is sealed, nitrogen-filled and fully waterproof and there is a distinctively ‘gilled’, black rubber belly protecting the basal section which houses the prisms.

Measuring only 335 mm in length, the 60 mm model is pleasingly compact and compares favourably in terms of size and weight with some of the well-established 60 mm or 62 mm offerings from other telescope manufacturers. The slightly larger 70 mm would also fit neatly within a theoretically acceptable size and weight range, but there are few existing 70 mm scopes with which to make a direct comparison.

Each scope’s tripod mount rotates through five click-stop positions, but does not quite make it through 360 degrees, as the tripod foot will not pass the focusing wheel, which is located just to the right of centre, on top of the prism housing.

Both scopes feature some interesting accessories designed to protect the lenses. For first-line protection, each comes with a padded stay-on case with an internal toggle-close lining. The objective lens cap is sprung to allow insertion into the barrel over the lens; it stays firmly in position and has a cord attachment to the base of the lens hood to allow fast removal and insertion without dropping it. I found, however, that when left to dangle below the scope, the cap blew around in anything more than a light breeze, producing vibration and image shake. There is always the option to cut the cord and use the cap fully detached, of course. To protect the eyepiece there is a rigid plastic tube which covers the whole of this part of the instrument, screwing directly onto the base of the eyepiece itself. Belt-and-braces protection – and it will never fall off.

The eyepieces twist into the scope body and are locked by tightening a basal locking ring which, interestingly, is actually a component of the eyepiece, not part of the scope body itself. It works. At no time did the eyepieces become loose. The eyecups extend by twisting out and appear to sit somewhat insecurely at three different positions above fully retracted. Other than this, both the zoom and main focusing wheels turn easily and positively with no slippage, the latter taking a rather lengthy 3.5 rotations from close focus to infinity.

I confess to being a little disappointed that, for the larger of the two scopes, the maximum field of view at 1,000 m is just 33 m, although in field conditions the image never appeared ‘cramped’ at any time during viewing. Both scopes returned a very satisfactory image: relatively bright, certainly sharp practically to the edges of the field and with an acceptable degree of chromatic aberration. All image colours were, I felt, a true representation of reality, but the level of brightness appeared to drop appreciably at magnifications beyond 40x in both scopes.

These two scopes certainly widen the choice at the entry level end of the market and I am sure that if Hawke ever added a fixed magnification eyepiece to the range – for example a 30x wide-angle to ramp up both field of view and the level of brightness – this would further increase their appeal to any birders on a budget.

First published in Birdwatch 174: 45.

Tech spec

Hawke Endurance 60 scope with 20-60x60 eyepiece

• Price:  £209 (angled), £205 (straight)
• Size: 392x87x165 mm
• Weight: 1,250 g
• Field of view: 33-15 m at 1,000 m
• Close focus: 7.5 m
• Gas-filled: yes
• Waterproof: yes
• Guarantee: 10 years

Hawke Endurance 70 mm scope with 23-70x70 eyepiece

• Price: £179 (angled), £175 (straight)
• Size: 335x77x165 mm
• Weight: 1,060 g
• Field of view: 38-17 m at 1,000 m
• Close focus: 6 m
• Gas-filled: yes
• Waterproof: yes
• Guarantee: 10 years