The Tele Vue-85's mix of aperture and small physical size makes it a wonderful "go anywhere, do anything," crossover instrument—with Tele Vue quality, of course. With APO performance and airline portability, the Tele Vue-85 has been delighting astronomy and birding enthusiasts and reviewers alike. "Eye-popping performance that raises the standard of excellence for highly portable instruments." Evaluation of double-stars, lunar detail, deep sky and photography were reported in Sky and Telescope as: "Truly awesome! ...Incredible!...the view almost blew me off my chair!..." The conclusion, "...an extremely powerful, compact instrument capable of delivering stunning images of the universe."

The Better View Desired website reviewer summed up the Tele Vue "experience" when he said he would choose the Tele Vue-85, "...to really enjoy the incredible beauty of the living birds... And, even now, every time I look at a bird through one of the exceptional conventional spotting scopes, I'll be thinking: 'I wonder what this would look like through the Tele Vue-85? I wonder what this bird really looks like?'" Yes, pure enjoyment of nature's beauty without awareness of a thing in between.