CelestronTravel Scope 70 Portable Refractor Telescope – 70mm Aperture, Fully-Coated Glass Optics – Includes Tripod, Backpack & Software – Ideal for Beginners & Travel

TL;DR Review: Great portable scope. Get a separate tripod - tripod wobbles.Definitely recommended for anyone who would like to take a scope with them on a trip, for someone who doesn't have the space for a permanently mounted scope, for a student whose interested in astronomy, or as a fun add-on to keep in the trunk on trips to anywhere. It’s small, lightweight, and priced right. It’s light enough that a five-year old could carry it for an entire trip without effort, giving them direct participation in the setup process.This is an amazing little telescope which you can easily take anywhere you're going. Looking at the moon, you'll be able to see the moon in fantastic detail, clearly seeing the ridges of the craters peaking above the moon's northern pole. Aimed at any patch of the sky, stars will become visible when before you saw nothing but darkness.As with all telescopes with this magnification, you will not see the individual rings of Saturn, but you will be able to make out the halo of the rings. Jupiter's moons, though, will be easy to spot, but speaking of spots, you won't see Jupiter's red-spot. Mars and Venus are indistinctive.As for galaxies, if you know where to look, Andromeda can be seen. As for using this scope for daytime viewing of birds and bees, it's perfect.My recommendation is to pair this scope with a Gosky Cell Phone Adapter Mount (you can order one here on Amazon - see my review for photos and videos take with it) and use your phone's camera to capture some amazing shots. Note positioning the Gosky is tricky, so prepared to be frustrated as you try to get the phone's camera and the telescope aligned. It’s not a defect and it's not something you're doing wrong - it's just worth it, but difficult. And if you want to get photos of objects you can't even see through the telescope with your phone, Google "android [or iphone] astronomy photo stacking", "NightCap Pro," or "iastrophotography".What makes this scope a winner it how easy it is to carry around. The included backpack has enough extra space that you can easily toss a laptop or Chromebook in it - I have.It also comes with two high-quality eyepieces (20mm and 10mm) which allow you toquickly switch them up as needed.Each lens also comes with a cap (a needed feature), though I wouldn't fret too much if I lost one. The side finderscope is well aligned and will make targeting much simpler.But the tripod! The tripod! It's OK, but because it's tiny and lightweight, it's not stiff and suffers from touch-wobble. You'll repeatedly find yourself aiming for an object and then when you let go of the telescope or tripod, sometimes it will move out of alignment. You just need to be cognizant of this and use a light touch once you've locked it down to where you want to aim.Since I’ve gotten it, my son and I have used it in City locations and in the country – obviously it works great in both locations.So if the tripod is poor - why did you give it 5 stars instead of 4? For the size, price, and weight of the tripod, it’s what you would expect. A sturdier tripod will weigh a whole lot more and will be bigger, killing the portability aspects of what without the tripod would automatically make this a 5-star telescope. So it’s neither the tripod’s fault nor the Celestron’s. A better-built tripod would weigh more and cost a lot more.As a person who doesn’t read manuals, do read the instruction manual. Some parts aren’t obvious. I managed to figure out how to put it together but would have had a much easier time if I had taken two minutes to flip through the instruction manual.

Great telescope good quality and super sturdy would make a great gift and was easy to assemble fun for kids love bird watching with this not for looking at stars with tho

The Good:The scope itself is great. It has a sharp, clear image and no noticeable artifacts. It's perfect for teaching kids and my nephew loves his.The Bad:It comes with a basic photography tripod that's super flimsy, so you'll want to replace it with a sturdier one. I'd also recommend getting an alt-azimuth mount while you're at it.The Barlow lens internals are pressure fitted and can slide around during shipping/transport. To the point that the lens itself had worked its way all the way back down the tube and in to the stopper, which itself was super crooked. I almost thought it was broke, but it worked fine after pulling the stopper and pushing the lens back into it's proper place.The Ugly:The 20mm eyepiece had a crack that caused a noticeable bubble shape distortion inside the glass.All that being said, you can't really do any better for the price, so I'm still giving it 4/5 stars. The scope it really what you're paying for here any ways, just keep that in mind.

BUen telescopio para observacion terrestre, tambien te sirve para ver grupos de estrellas y la luna, pero si quieres ver planetas debes agregar un lente Barlow 3X o un ocular de 4mm, al ser un equipo optimizado para ser compacto y liviano facil de llevar a todas partes, el tripode es muy pequeño y no muy estable, recomendado solo para observacion terrestre pero si lo quieres para observacion astronomica recomendaria tambien usar un tripode mas estable.

This telescope is good for what it is. You can see the moon and a few planets. Other than the moon you won’t see anything in detail. The tripod is not good, it’s extremely hard to lock in on a target. As a 31 year old adult it’s extremely hard, I wouldn’t recommend this for first scopes for kids.It would be great for bird watching or seeing things on earth. It’s a bird jones telescope and it’s mostly for seeing things on earth. You can see the moon in detail, but if you want to see further than that I’d get a different scope.The tripod for mine broke after a few days or using. It’s made of cheap plastic. However, I did watch a video of someone on YouTube putting this on a good tripod and it did help. Don’t get me wrong it does pack a punch for $100 bucks.. but I wouldn’t start with this scope if you know you have a heavy interest in star gazing. If you have a nice tripod and are on a tight budget, it could be a good scope.I ended up returning this and buying a celestron dobsonian.

Excelente producto