Product Description
The Celestron 70mm Travel Scope is a very inexpensive little refractor of many uses: a great scope to start the kids on astronomy; your own spur-of-the-moment backyard scope for astronomy, birding, and nature studies; a scope to sit on the porch of the home with a view to while away the lazy summer afternoons and evenings; a toss-in-the-trunk-of-the-car take-along for vacations and day trips; and more. Its tripod can serve double duty as a nifty light-weight photo tripod for your camera.
You get an lot of features and performance for not a lot of money with the compact Celestron 70mm Travel Scope: fully-coated achromatic optics, two 1.25" eyepieces, finderscope, erect image diagonal, adjustable height tripod/altazimuth mount, backpack carrying/storage case, and TheSky X- First Light Edition planetarium/star charting software on CD-ROM. And it weighs only 3.3 pounds, so it's easy to take with you anywhere you go.
The erect image diagonal gives you eyepiece views that are oriented the same as they are to your bare eye. This lets you easily follow moving wildlife and vehicles without the annoying image reversal you find with a conventional diagonal. Plus, printing (the name and home port on a distant boat, for example) is completely readable, instead of being backwards. Close focus is only 19', letting you get up close and personal with the nature in your own back yard.
While not a powerhouse of an astronomical scope, the Celestron Travel Scope 70 might surprise you with its capabilities outside our atmosphere.
You will find a lot of uses for the respectable optics of the Celestron 70mm Travel Scope, and a lot of times and places to use them, day or night. For the price, it's hard to beat this nifty little refractor.
This Telescope's Optical System . . .
Achromatic refractor: 70mm aperture, 400mm focal length, f/5.7. All-glass crown and flint doublet refractor with built-in lens shade to improve contrast. Fully antireflection coated on all air-to-glass surfaces for good light transmission and contrast.
Finderscope: 5 x 24mm straight-through refractor.
Focuser: 1.25" rack and pinion.
Star diagonal: 1.25" 45° erect image/right reading prism type.
Two 1.25" eyepieces: The first is a 20mm providing 20x. The eyepiece field of view is 2.5° across, five times the diameter of the full Moon for expansive views of the Moon, the brighter large-scale deep space objects like open star clusters and nebulas, and terrestrial observing. The second is a 10mm providing 40x with a 1.3° field for more close-up views of the Moon, nature, and more. Optional 1.25" eyepiece can expand the magnification range.
This Telescope's Mount . . .
Altazimuth mount: The Travel Scope 70 comes with a preassembled adjustable height photo tripod that serves as an altazimuth mount for astronomical and terrestrial observing. A no-tool mounting foot on the optical tube connects the 17" long scope to the tripod by means of a single hand-tighten 1/4"-20 thread bolt for fast set-up and take-down. The four-section legs and rising center post let you adjust the tripod height from about 16" to 49". A lock knob adjusts the friction and smoothness of travel in azimuth (side to side) while the twist-to-lock pan handle does the same for motion in altitude (up and down). The pan handle lets you manually aim the scope and track moving objects with precision.
Carry case: The scope comes with a soft backpack-type carrying/storage case that holds scope, tripod, and eyepieces, inviting you to toss the Travel Scope 70 in the trunk of your car to take it with you wherever and whenever you go.
Two-year warranty: All Celestron telescopes have a two-year warranty, double that of competitive scopes.
Tech Details
| Aperture | 2.75" |
|---|---|
| Binary and Star Cluster Observation | No |
| Focal Length | 400mm |
| Focal Ratio | f/5.7 |
| Galaxy and Nebula Observation | No |
| Highest Useful Magnification | 133x |
| Lunar Observation | No |
| Weight | 3.3 lbs. |
| Planetary Observation | No |
| Resolution | 1.65 arc seconds |
| Telescope Type | Refractor |
| Visual Limiting Magnitude | 11.7 |
| Warranty | 2 years |
Reviews
That said, the tripod is junk. Unadulterated, unmitigated junk. Pitch it and grab pretty much any thrift-store medium-height photography tripod and you'll be much better off. The backpack is useful for keeping stuff together with the scope, not so much for actually hauling the scope around. But again, pitch the tripod, it's not worth even messing with. (Posted on 8/14/2019)
I would say get a small Nexstar like a 4 or 5. The goto ability would be better for a beginner. Also, the smaller Nexstar units come with a little better actual telescope.
If this unit is all you can afford for a telescope, you probably will not be that happy with it after the novelty wears off. (Posted on 1/2/2019)
That said, you get what you pay for. I have a much sturdier tripod I use with my camera and switched to it after trying the included tripod once. A really good tripod costs much more than this whole kit does, so as a backup for when I’m using my good tripod, I got an Amazon Basics tripod. Low cost and much sturdier than this one. This will get you started, but get a better tripod if you decide to continue.
Also, the backpack case is nice, but it’s not padded and provides no protection to the scope. I wrap the pack in a blanket to carry in my truck. So far, that’s been enough.
I recommend this scope if you’re thinking of starting astronomy as a hobby like I was. It’s enough to see if you like it, and cheap enough to give to someone else if you don’t. (Keep the original tripod for if you give it away!).
I’ve got a bigger, better, (much) more expensive scope now, but still have this one in my truck and use it for viewing things like the Moon and the Pleiades. It’s much better for those than my 6” Newtonian! (Posted on 1/1/2019)
Supplied Accessories
- 70mm fully coated achromatic refractor optics
- Pre-assembled adjustable height tripod
- 5 x 24mm finderscope
- 1.25" rack and pinion focuser
- 1.25" 45° viewing image-erecting prism-type star diagonal
- 1.25" 20mm eyepiece (20x)
- 1.25" 10mm eyepiece (40x)
- TheSky X CD-ROM star-charting software
- Backpack carrying case
- Dust covers.
