Celestron Travel Scope 70mm Beginner Portable Telescope with Backpack

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.

Although I am not a newbie with regard to an interest and study in the stars - and I have also been in one or two very sophisticated observatories in the past - yet I am a complete newbie with personal telescopes. So after reading the reviews, I bought the Celestron Travel Scope 70. I didn't expect the perfect telescope, but one which would allow me to do a fair amount of amateur observing without too much hassle and with satisfied expectations. This telescope does just that. The assembly was a snap, and after playing with the scope in the daytime and familiarizing myself (and discovering) its features, it easily meets, and - based on some of the reviews - easily exceeds my expectations. I don't find the tripod to be a real issue, but then, I make sure I have a firm foundation to set it upon. I did not read anywhere - maybe I missed it - about turning the Pan Handle clockwise/counter-clockwise to smooth out the altitude adjustments, but I quickly discovered that by playing with the scope during the day. In short, I played with every thing on the scope I could find, and now I've pretty well got it figured out. The only thing I don't really care for is the Finderscope, but not because it's plastic, but because - as of yet, anyway - I have found it to be pretty much useless, whether it's plastic or titanium or kryptonite. I can use the 20mm to find just about anything I want, and then I can use the 10mm to focus more powerfully on the object I have found with the 20mm. I can see ants crawling on a tree at a hundred yards, at least, and I can read the text on license plates which I can't even see with the naked eye. While practicing, I read the text on a street sign clearly, even though I couldn't even see the street sign itself with the naked eye. Having learned and familiarized myself with the telescope by putting it through its paces in the daytime - which is an absolute must if you're a beginner, if you really want to learn the scope, that is - then viewing the night sky is a great deal more fun. The moon and its features are crisp (and I am near a big city), albeit the stars and planets I'm just now getting to, so can't say anything definitive on that yet, but based on the other reviews, and based on what I've seen so far with this scope, the planets and stars should easily meet or exceed my expectations for this scope. If you are a complete beginner, even if you're an adult (which people who don't really know me would say that I am), then this scope is a great value, and it will easily help you determine whether or not you want to go on to fry bigger fish in the future. Moreover, don't discount what you might learn by using this scope instead of going on to bigger fish right away. This scope will give you a far better feel for the issue, and will teach you some little but important things that will help you with more professional scopes in the future, should you decide to go that route. Also, the SkyX Software included with this scope is a terrific value in and of itself, and is a tremendous tool for the beginning/amateur astronomer. So rather than going out and plunking down a lot of money for a professional scope right off the bat, give this one a try, for it is a great beginning tool, especially for the price.

It’s very user friendly, it’s absolutely the best option for amateur newcomers. It’s not the best out there, but for the price it’s more than suitable. The tripod is fairly fragile so be careful when it’s fully extended and you’ll be okay.

I don't know why people are expecting the results of the Hubble Telescope in the reviews. It does exactly what it's designed to do. It takes the moon and makes it look like a large marble that's placed a few inches from your eye that's in pretty good focus. You can see some craters on the Moon, but you can't see Niel Armstrong's footprints. You can see the rings of Saturn, but you can't count them like a tree that's been cut in half. I'm not sure why some individuals have ridiculous expectations for something that's less than $100... There are better scopes out there, sure, but it's a great beginner scope for kids and amateurs. I got this for my 7 year old who has shown interest in the Cosmos. If he really gets into it, I'll invest more later and pass this to his younger siblings. For right now, it's perfect. The frame is light, but the scope is light and doesn't need a heavy duty frame. It holds the scope, which is what it's designed to do. All the pieces were accounted for, and it came with a backpack so it can be taken on trips so you don't need to buy a separate case to hold it when you're traveling in the car or walking somewhere. It does what it was designed to do. Great for kids and amateurs at a modest price to see nature, take it to a long distance shooting range, see space a bit better, and anything else that is legal to do. If you want to see a nebula, and have a few thousand dollars to spare, go for it and buy that kind of scope. For the normal people with real expectations, this is a great telescope for beginners and kids. Well worth the investment if you're unsure if you want to invest a large amount of money to see footprints on the Moon. Take care!

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.

Just recently purchased this 70MM travel scope, considering the price, this scope is fantastic. It fits well in the case with the included tripod, 45degree diagonal, 10 and 20mm eyepieces and finder scope. It fits well in my suitcase without gobbling up too much room. Although this kit is not perfect out of the box, I decided to give this kit five stars anyway. Here's why - The scope with the included 20mm eyepiece is awesome. It's easy to put together, the little tripod is a bit shaky, but the clarity of this scope is way beyond what I thought it would be. I can see very small details out to 300 meters away through my hotel window. For a 70mm aperture the light gathering is very good. Haven't had the chance to view the night sky objects yet but I am positive that for it's small size it will do very well. Of course it'll never match a full sized telescope but this little jewel is pretty cool. The down side is the finder scope is not so great and the image is reversed so I just put the finder back in the box. I use the 20mm eyepiece which give a very clear wide view to find things. The 10mm eyepiece is not so great, it's clear but the small exit and close eye relief isn't great due to reduced light gathering with the increase in magnification, but again, for the price this is an awesome deal. I've been playing with this neat little travel scope every night since I've got it and I know that I'll take it on every future trip as well. Can't wait to get home and hook up my camera to this scope and use my better eyepieces. Considering the clarity I've seen so far, I have a strong feeling that it'll work well for digi-scoping. Will try to update this review after I return home and test it out some more, but my first impression is - if your looking for a scope that is small and portable and inexpensive and light weight but performs well, this is what you're looking for.

Straight out of the box everything was packaged with care. The instructions were easy to follow and assembly took around 15 minutes. Aligning the finder scope takes a little longer to really dial it in but for the price and what you get and ease of use it is worth it for someone just starting out or wants a highly portable telescope.

Celestron travel scope is a good product for what it is made for. It is primarily a terrestrial viewing scope. The objective (large lens in front of the scope) is good quality and is functional. However, the eyepieces that come with the scope are (in my opinion) lower quality (this is probably done to keep the total cost of the scope low). Without a decent eyepiece the experience of viewing objects will be minimal. What I did was invest about $25.00 (they can be higher priced - based on quality) in a good quality 20mm x1.25 inch (a good standard starting size) "Plossel" type eyepiece (several listed on Amazon for under $30.00). The addition of a higher quality eyepiece really changed the viewing experience with this scope. Or, if you want to get into astronomical viewing with this scope Celestron makes an Observers Accessory Kit (#94308- you can get it on Amazon - about $70.00). It comes with two Plossel eyepieces -17mm and 6mm-, a moon filter (definitely will need it to bring down the glare if observing the moon), a 2X Barlow lens (doubles the magnification of the eyepieces), and two planetary filters, and a case. It seems like a well put together and thought out accessory kit (I know, another $70.00 !!). Also (as stated in other reviews) the tripod is weak (when extended to its full length). What I recommend is getting a sturdy table (and chair) and set the tripod (in its non-extended or shortest length) on the table. Sit in the chair, and rotate the 45 degree prism (with eyepiece attached) until you can see what you want. You don't need to be standing to view the stars (or whatever)!! It is even better to get a 90 degree correct image diagonal to view the heavens with (that way you don't have to bend over so far, and you can aim the scope higher - I know even more money - actually about $45.00 for a starter correct image diagonal). Become familiar with how the pieces attach (eyepiece to 45 degree prism to insertion in the telescopes focusing tube-and how they can be rotated to your seated position) and you will get a lot more enjoyment out of this well made product. Remember, this is not a heavy duty alt-azimuth tripod with slow motion controls (Celestron #93607 - which looks like it would fit this scopes screw on base). It is basically a standard camera tripod. You will have to "play" with it and figure out (especially on celestial objects) how to aim it high and then tighten the adjustments (which will lower the object into your field of view). You could even buy a heavier tripod with the same type of adjustments that this tripod has - Celestron #93610- it would make the scope more secure if you needed to fully extend the legs on the tripod - I have one that I use with some of my other telescopes - you just have to get used to the way it adjusts -think each mentioned tripod is about $80.00 to $90.00 (that money just keeps adding up !!). The adjustment for lowering the object into view while tightening the tripod controls takes some getting used to, but it can be learned -and is part of the overall "experience" of this fine travel scope. Also, about the adjustments on the tripod. The vertical (up and down) lever on the tripod - do not back it out all the way. What happened to me is that a small nut that attaches the handle to the tripod will fall out. So what I did was put a piece of tape over the hole where the nut is - so if I backed out the adjustment to far, the nut would not fall out (no big deal - just need to be aware that it could happen). I have had this scope for several years, and have seen many celestial objects with it (although I use a correct image 90 degree star diagonal - as stated previously). It is a nice scope for its intended purpose, however (in my opinion) it does need a couple of upgrades (as suggested). Further, if you need to make the tripod more secure when it is on a table top or partially extended - try draping some "strap on ankle weights" over one or more of the tripod's braces (let one or both sides of the weight rest on the table - so you don't over stress the brace). I had some old strap on ankle weights lying around, just draped one over the brace (without strapping it down), and it makes it much more secure. Also, you get two ankle braces in a set. So you will have an extra one if you need it !! So let's review. The most important item on any telescope is the objective lens (as stated previously) the large lens in the front of the scope. The Celestron Travel scope objective lens is of good quality, that's where I think the product excels. I recommend to buy a higher quality eyepiece (Plossel type), add some weight to the tripod (as suggested)-do not extend the tripod into its fully extended position (becomes really shaky and weak)-keep it as "low as possible"-preferably on a table top (add an "ankle weight" to the fold out extensions), learn how to rotate the 45 degree diagonal so you can view while seated (this won't change the correct image view of the object), and you have a very well made, fairly light weight travel scope. I have used this scope for terrestrial and astronomical purposes, and as a "spotting scope" while at the range. Works perfectly !! I hope this review has assisted you in your decision (I know -I didn't intend for this review to be so long - but there you have it !!). Have fun !!

Un producto de alta calidad a un precio muy accesible, $1,900 MXN ya con todos los gastos (alrededor de $100 USD a la fecha). La compra fue el modelo Celestron Travel Scope de 70mm (no es la version DX que incluye adaptador para tu smartphone). Los materiales son de primera, a veces es difícil ajustar la dirección, pero con paciencia y práctica se puede resolver. Cumple perfectamente su función, pude ver Saturno, Jupiter y Marte con muy buena nitidez, los lentes incluidos hacen ver los planetas un poco chicos, pero con muy buena nitidez, me imagino que consiguiendo un lente extra para que aumente el tamaño de la imagen lo haría perfecto. No esperes poder tomar fotos para tu instagram o cosas por el estilo porque no se apreciarán mucho (por el tamaño de la imagen) a excepción de tal vez imágenes de la luna, pero si lo que buscas es simplemente disfrutar de la astronomía, este telescopio es excelente para iniciar.

Memnun kaldık güzel bi ürün ayı çok net görebiliyoruz

De schroefdraad van het statiefplaatje ontbreekt, dus kun je de kijker niet op het statief vastzetten. Ik zet de kijker daarom op een eigen fotostatief, en dat gaat goed. De richtkijker is speelgoed. Toch nog 2 sterren, de kijker zelf is redelijk te noemen voor deze prijs. En het geheel is licht en makkelijk vervoerbaar.

Gostei da facilidade de montagem. Muito leve, prático, bem acondicionado. Já sabia que não seria fácil observar planetas, pois como moro em uma cidade onde a luminosidade é muito alta, fica mais difícil. A visualização da Lua Cheia foi fantástico. Satisfeito com o produto. Atendeu minhas expectativas.