Celestron 21035 Travel Scope 70 Portable Refractor Telescope Kit with Backpack, Black

"The best telescope is the one you use the most" so they say. I have searched the internet, read hundreds of articles, read magazines, toyed with the idea of getting a 'proper' telescope (such as the Celestron Astromaster 114 reflector or the refractor 70AZ) but had a moment of clarity: apart from the first few weeks, when am I REALLY likely to go to the effort of setting up a big scope? I mean they're really big and unless you keep it by the back door it means lugging it down stairs, plonking it in the yard and wrestling with the various knobs and bits to, finally, get a view of the moon or a nebula. Sure, they'll look good but to be honest, like my rice-cooker or the sandwich toaster it'll sit there gathering dust and eventually end up broken or in the loft... Now, I thought of binoculars but, I have some of those and they're 10x mag. They're fine if you like to see streaks of light as the stars zip about your vision like fireworks. Get a tripod? Well, for the money, big (I say big when actually the biggest are only 15x) binos are not all that great and like someone on already said Amazon saide you'll need to be Data from Star Trek if you plan on holding them - forget it. No really, forget it - bins are a big disappointment for the stars. Only German soldiers in my WW2 picture books and bird watchers have them. The Celestron travel scope is like one half of a MASSIVE pair of binos. From 20 to 40x mag they walk all over binos in terms of brightness and magnification. I have packed it in its little bag (very useful believe me) and carry it up the Malvern Hills. Try doing that with a reflector.. In the perfect 360 view up their I've seen the heavens explode into life. I can get it outside, set up and marvelling at the moon or a nebula in 2 mins. Gaze and Go. Every night I have a quick scan at the heavens then get back to putting bath sealant around taps or whatever grown-ups do at night. Great. Build quality is absolutely great. Sure, you have to be delicate with the controls and not heavy-handed but it's a telescope - what did you expect? If you're too rough to handle it then take up judo instead. I am careful with my lovely little scope and it opens up the skys for me and my little daughter every clear night. I can't believe how brilliant it is. My daughter saw a hot air balloon in the sky today - so small it was barely visible. In 45seconds we'd found it on the Travelscope and could count the occupants in the basket and watch the flames light up the red envelope - completely perfect. Maybe you could get a better stargazer... maybe you could get a better bird watcher... but could you get a lovely little instrument that could do both for 70 quid? (2 million US dollars)if I drop it and smash it I'll be sad but get onto Amazon and get another. It should be 160 quid (85 million dollars).. but don't let Celestron know they've mis-priced it! Want a cheap but perfectly useable scope for looking at the moon and birds and ships at sea? Want to use it every day? Are you not a Wall Street banker? Get this little beauty. If you really get hooked with astronomy then in a year get a reflector. You'll still only use the travel scope mind you! Hope my review gets you looking up and going "Wow!"

Where do I start, this was bought a year ago for my 13yr old son who decided to take Gcse Astronomy, so this is a parents revirw with a little input from him. Its a lovely affordable kit and comes in one box, the telescope not that I am an expert in such things but being a photographer I do understand light and lenses appears to be excellent the eyepieces are good quality and similar to a camera with an added lens can be improved upon by buying set of more expensive ones but then this is for a child and they arefit for his pruposes. The bag is lovely as it means the whole kit is in one place and easily stored a massive plus point for anybody whose the parent of a teenager who sees his or her bed room as a massive skip with a door. Now for the negative in my eyes the tripod if you can afford it replace it, it is a really low end budget model and is not very stable and easily adjusted in my eye's, the good news is if you are the owner of one for photographic purposes they fit on this base perfectly. Overall I would say this was a perfect compromise between cost and quality. Having used it now a few times over the last year I think it is good value for money and a great starter kit if like me you have a young person taking up a new hobby and can't afford to purchase an all singing all dancing model. If you wish to use this for Astrophotography and have a Digital Slr all you need to purchase is a T-Mount ring for your brand of camera. There is a celestron adaptor eyepiece which we do have but you dont necesarilly need to purchase one as it has a t2 thread on the focusing barrel. my advice is if you can find one of these for about £60 buy it you won't be disappointed. I have also used it as a day telescope bird watching it is not ideal or looks the part when amongst "professional" bird watchers but does a reasonable job. Update we have just decided to up grade this product Sept 2015. Its good!! made sure I did not waste £500 pounds but after almost a year we are upgrading and its going to be a big hit. We have used it for astro photography but it needs a motorised mount to get better pictures hence the upgrade. With wildlife things are great and we've managed some decent bird pictures and lovely landscapes can be zoomed in on. I bought a barlow adaptor and t2 adaptor for my Nikon Digital SLR and it give a lovely picture but you do need to take the pictures in manual setting as all the gizmos on my D90, D80 and D50 bodies do not work due to no electrical connections. I have learnt a lot and my son has also last nights blood moon was lovely through the lens just ensure you have a moon filter.

When reviewing this 'scope you have to bear in mind what you are paying for it. At £53 you aren't going to get a Meade but you do get a servciceable 70mm compact refractor, a tripod, eyepieces,barlow lens, software and a back pack to keep it all in. Back in my youth I had a "proper" 3" astronomical refractor and I think this scope is comparable to it in terms of magnification, focus, image sharpness etc. The main problem you'll have with this scope is that its on a camera tripod (a rather flimsy one at that but more on that later) and its a fairly jerky transport system if you're used to an equitorial mount or even an altazimuth. That said I managed to lock on to Jupiter (not seen its moons for 30 years till tonight), Betelgeuse and a binary star (no moon tonight). The tripod supplied is a bit rickety and on full extension and the bottom legs extension are quite thin and bendy but you can't expect miracles - I'd rather have a reasonable scope and a rubbish tripod as that's easily remedied - you can get a sturdier tripod fairly cheaply (although it might not fit in the pack). The kit had expanded from that described on Celestron's website to include a X3 Barlow Lens and a 4mm eyepiece (X100) in addition to the 20mm (X20) and 10mm (X40) giving you magnification options of between x20 and x300 (although I wouldn't push it that far - it would be impossible to hold the image). You might move on to bigger and better things but that's the beauty of this scope - it will always have a use because it packs away so small - great to take camping, on walks, on holiday etc (you're not going to lug around an 8" reflector!). For the money you get a decent scope and lots of extras. If you look for the "firstscope accessory kit" you can pick up a moon filter, 6 and 12mm eyepieces (for more magnification options) and a spare spotting scope for about a tenner (only a few quid more than getting a moon filter on its own).

An amazing telescope for beginners and good people. It is decent as an astrophotographer and the magnification of this model is a strong 125 times enough to see rings of Saturn and stripes on Jupiter. The tripod it comes with is poor so I recommend getting a stand separately. Great product!

I bought this telescope in 2015 when it cost £39.00 for the "Amazon exclusive" version, I'm writing this review in 2020 when it costs £79.99 or £89.99 "Amazon exclusive". The difference is that you get an additional 4mm eyepiece and a 3x barlow, in my opinion they are not worth paying extra for, being of such poor quality as to be pretty much useless. [11/2022 Edit: at £80 in the Black Friday Sale and given how much prices have risen since 2020 this bundle is a better buy] I bought this telescope to replace a better one that had been damaged. I had been quite enthusiastic about astronomy in the past, but my interest had waned somewhat, so I just wanted a simple affordable telescope, that I could use occasionally with my existing accessories. The best part of this kit is the OTA (optical tube assembly: the actual telescope itself). There is a bit too much plastic for my liking, but it does the job when used with a solid mount and a decent eyepiece. I would describe the optical quality as reasonable for a budget scope, not great, not awful. The 45 degree diagonal is also of reasonably good quality, and is great if you want to use this as a spotting scope. I prefer a 90 degree diagonal for astronomy. The bag this comes in is also decent, made of a cordura type material and lightly padded. Now for the not so good, the eyepieces let the scope down, the 20mm is better than the 10mm, neither are good. The tripod is not bad in and of itself, it is a perfectly reasonable, cheap, lightweight tripod, that works well with small and light cameras. The problem is that it is hopelessly mismatched with this telescope, which needs something a good deal sturdier, putting the two together is absurd. The worst part of this kit is the finderscope, it is cheap, nasty, and mine went in the bin. So would I recommend this kit? Not at £80-90, at a discount though it might be worth it. The thing to bear in mind is that to get the best from this telescope you will need to replace much of the kit with better items. That wasn't a problem for me as I've used this with a red dot finder, proper astronomy mounts, and a range of eyepieces I already had. So if you are an astronomer looking for a "grab and go" scope or just a budget short tube refractor then, at the right price, this might fit the bill. For beginners though you should be aware that you will need, at a minimum, a better mount and a decent eyepiece, and ideally a better finder too. A sturdy photographic tripod should suffice for mounting, but few non-astronomers are likely to have eyepieces and finders just knocking around. This means that to get the best from this telescope you will end up having to spend more money, and that in turn means that it may be worth considering kits that cost a bit more but include everything you need. As an example the Skywatcher Startravel 80 Telescope with Stable AZ3 Stand and Accessories is a slightly better telescope and includes 2 plossl eyepieces, a red dot finder, and a proper astronomy tripod and mount for an extra £80-90[11/2022 Edit: The price difference has increased], which you could easily spend on buying all that separately. Also consider the Skywatcher Heritage 100P very different as a reflector on a Dobsonian type mount, but only £10-20 more, and often recommended for beginners. I have never installed the astronomy software included with this scope as I am happy using the, free and open source, Stellarium. As a spotting scope this does the job, again with a better eypiece and tripod, but my Kowa is smaller lighter and sharper (and cost 3x as much).

Well I have been wanting a telescope for a while,Im a total beginner. So I researched loads and liked this one due to it being compact, and easy to take out and about. I have a keen interest in Astronomy and wanted this for that reason. Many have pointed out flimsy tripod. I dont find tripod that bad. Good if your 5ft 1 like me, prob not so good if your tall. I find as long as your gentle then tripod not a problem. Another thing that made me get this, was the price and wow I would of paid more! It came today and I thought it was so easy to set up, great instructions. I could not believe my luck, clear skies just a few hours after I set it up. So off I went to the garden , what a great view of all those stars , I was like a kid! But what a cold night. So I decided to try in bedroom, as I saw it was a clear view of Cresent moon. So I set it up there. I was blown away with the view I got of the moon , all those craters and so clear too. It arrived real quick and came with a rucksack to put it in, and its so light but quality is so good! I cannot recommend this telescope enough, it is amazing for the price. All I need now is moon filters and a good x2 barlow lense. Just waiting for book (turn left at Orion )to arrive, then I will get hours of stargazing and planet searching out of this great scope . You must buy this ! :)

You wouldn't imagine a scope so cheap could be worth it, but this scope isn't only good, it's damned good, and seems very well built. Firstly, it is so light that fully packed in its strong rucksac I can hold up the whole caboodle with only my little finger. The supplied lenses are also excellent and give a nice sharp view of the Orion Nebula, I can also see some of Jupiter's moons. As for our moon I can zoom in to clearly view individual craters, though the supplied Barlow lens is dreadful, and so well worth buying a better one. I also take the scope out on my mobility scooter for very clear views of boats far out at sea, it's also great for bird watching as the field of view is wider than expected. Another great feature is the free astronomy software. I'm just an occasional amateur but the program is so easy to use and prints out a very nice, and yet fully customizable localized star map for any date of the year. I also highly recommend searching for the free download intro version of Stellarium. I knocked off one star because others are right, the supplied tripod is rather unsteady, I experience much better use of the scope with a proper camera tripod.

I am a beginner to astronomy. I bought this Celestron Travel Scope 70 as it seemed very affordable. It came with everything listed in the description. I found it very simple to setup, didn't need the instructions. Everything seems reasonable quality, considering the price point of £104. The tripod is light weight but ok if you are not too rough aligning the scope. I had my first outing tonight. I viewed the moon which was almost first quarter (half Moon). It looked awesome with the 20mm eyepiece (20 x magnification). I didn't have time to try the 10mm eyepiece (40 x magnification). As the Moon was only in the sky for 40 minutes before it dipped below the horizon. I would recommend this telescope. It is light weight and easy to transport so it can be used for other things. A day's walk bird watching or viewing wildlife is easily achievable.