Celestron Travel 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.

I really like this travel telescope at 70mm. Here is how to really fall in love with it. Purchase the used like new offer and then spend the money you saved to buy an upgraded red dot finder this is a must to avoid frustration, and a better upgraded aluminum camera tripod stand for stability. Then grab a 45-degree diagonal for terrestrial viewing and 90 degrees for celestial viewing. Pick up a zoom eyepiece or a svbony or astromania 25mm eyepiece and you'll love it!. It's a great telescope! The finder-scope and tripod are a wobbly junk mess. These lil cheap upgrades the whole thing cost $172 total and produces the same exact sight picture as seen in my first light FL-80640 telescope.

First off, this telescope is practically unusable until you upgrade the tripod. You can get the moon, with some pain, but you won't get stars or planets, as others have noted. I upgraded to a hundred dollar Celestron Heavy-Duty Altazimuth tripod, and that made this a wonderful experience. That tripod lets you do tiny adjustments to altitude and azimuth (i.e. pitch and yaw), so you can get objects in view once you're in the vicinity and then keep them in view as they move with earth's rotation.With no visual upgrades, I was able to easily and clearly see Saturn, its rings, and at least one its moons. It will be small. Saturn is about the size of the saturn emoji on a cell phone held arms length from you, but it is bright, clear, and wonderful. If you see it and it looks like a giant dull orb with a line through it, you're out of focus. I made that mistake the first try. It will be small but crystal clear, with unmistable rings.I was also able to see Jupiter and four of its moons. I could not make out any banding or the red spot without making optical upgrades. Seeing the planets got me excited, so I've since spent many times more the original price of the telescope getting a new adjustable zoom eyepiece, new star diagonal, and a 2x barlow. They've improved the clarity and magnification enough for me to make out banding on Jupiter, and I'll be able to bring those along to future telescopes. Earth's moon is glorious, of course. This is a great beginner telescope, and I can't wait to see what I can see with it once this full moon goes away and gives me a darker sky.