Celestron Travel Scope 80 Portable Refractor Telescope – 80mm Aperture, Fully-Coated Glass Optics – Includes Tripod, Smartphone Adapter, Backpack & Software – Ideal for Beginners & Travel

I've had a 8" diameter dobsonian telescope for about 25 years but wanted a smaller scope I could take camping when I didn't feel like dragging the heavy, 4 foot long one with me. I also wanted one I could use as a spotting scope for birding. There are only two things I don't like about this scope. 1) tripod is way to wimpy. Even on a name brand heavier-duty tripod, it's less stable than a dobsonian. The tripod it comes with is barely adequate. It works best if placed on a sturdy table with the legs extended just far enough to make it less tippy. 2) There is some lense flare when looking at Mars, but this is to be expected for this price of scope. There is also some minor purple fringing around the edge of the moon, but the moon looks so gorgeous thru it that you forget to notice. Now for what I like: 1) Portability - doesn't kill my back to haul it outside. Sets up in minutes. So easy to take outside, I use it all the time. I'd only haul my big scope out a couple times a year because it was too heavy. 2) The moon looks so AWESOME thru this scope!!! 3) Jupiter: you can see several of the moons. I haven't been able to make out any of the color bands as I kinda can with my bigger scope, but that's to be expected due to the size/cost of this one. 3) Saturn: It's my favorite planet. Even though it looks tiny in this scope, you can see the rings and it's beautiful. I was able to see the nebula in Orion's sword from the city (I live on the outskirts of Salt Lake City) It was really beautiful on one especially dark night, but most nights it's not dark enough to see it well. I haven't been able to see other nebulas I've looked for. I expect that when I'm able to get away from the city lights I'll be able to see more nebulas and galaxies. (Nebulas and planets thru backyard telescopes don't look like most photos. You don't see the colors. Nebulas look like gray clouds. They can still be beautiful tho). The eyepieces feel cheap, very light weight, but are surprisingly good. Better than I expected for the price. They have enough eye relief that They work ok with my eyeglasses, but I prefer to take my glasses off when looking thru the scope. I haven't tried the digiscoping adapter yet, but I've experimented with a similar one on my other scope. Digiscoping is tricky and often not all you hope it'd be, but you might get some good photos of the moon. I haven't really tried it as a spotting scope yet, other than to look at some leaves at the top of a tree, and expect it'll be good for that. I'm considering buying a zoom eyepiece for that. All in all, I think this is an amazing scope for the price. Too bad the tripod isn't as good as the scope. If you can get a heavier tripod, you'll love this scope, especially if you can find some dark skies. But even from the city, the Moon, Saturn & Jupiter are so amazing thru this scope.

We used this telescope for stargazing calculator when glamping all over North and Central America with our cats in our cosmic "Los Gatos Casita" travel trailer. We also developed an easy to use stargazing calculator that we use to assist with our Astrophotography. If interested, this calculator and details of our telescope and travel trailer modifications that we made to accomplish this and photos of some of our travels may found by Googling our travel trailer name. Gayle & Bob "Los Gatos Casita"

Great telescope! Can see the moon and sky very, very well. Instructions were confusing, but we figured it out eventually. Would 100% recommend for beginners.

Got this for my 10 year old son. So he'd have a scope light enough for him to bring outside and set up on his own, and cheap enough that it's not a huge loss if it gets messed up. Also, I kinda wanted a travel scope to use for myself too. I have plenty of large scopes that take a lot of time to set up. This is perfect for setting up and taking down quickly and easily. There is lots of chromatic aberration around the edges of the moon, but its pefectly fine for a $100 scope. I've included a couple moon pics taken by my son and a quick single exposure of the Orion Nebula that he took. Both he took with a phone, using the supplied phone attachment. The scopes construction is extremely cheap plastic. But that also makes it very light and portable. The tripod is very light as well, but that makes it the worst item in the bundle. It is very shaky and positioning it on an object, especially with a phone attached, is quite a pain. But as long as you understand and are OK with this being a travel scope, it's a great purchase. I love the little thing as much, if not more, than my kid.

I just got this little telescope. I set it up and calibrated the focus during the day, trying out the eyepieces, the barlow lens I got separately, and the smartphone mount. I got a 90 degree diagonal on it too. The scope works well so far. I can see it has modest, acceptable optical aberration with the stock eyepieces. I'll get a Plossl eyepiece later and see if that improves things VS stock. For the price and for what it is I give the scope alone a 5/5 stars. The finder scope isn't great but it works. I may not use it and just use the low power eyepiece on the scope for that purpose. Then there's the tripod... Es Muy Horrible! Sure, it'll pass for terrestrial viewing and the moon. I was hoping, based on reviews I would at least be able to easily hack or modify it to make it function well. No. It's very shaky even with all adjustments locked tightly. I didn't even extend it beyond about 3 inches vertical and using a camp stool, I didn't extend the lower section of the legs. In short, I did everything possible to give it stability and a chance to work well. God help anybody using it standing fully extending legs and the vertical adjustment. Then there's actually getting the scope on target... Even with the low power lens and its wider field of view, the tripod is hard to aim and adjust. You need extreme patience to aim with the high power lens included. Add a 3x barlow between that high power lens and the diagonal and, good luck! Celestron, your name means telescopes to me and I'm sure many others. It meant that to me long before I ever considered getting one since my youth. You, whose bread and butter is the astronomy hobby should know better than to sell hobby killers. This tripod makes this otherwise decent scope a hobby killer. You know, annoying and frustrating people new to the hobby so much that they give up entirely. That means fewer telescopes and accessories sold yearly and long term (or to perk up your MBA's and revolving door exec's ears: LESS QUARTERLY REVENUE). Beginning astronomy hobbyists will likely stay with it and upgrade equipment over their lifetime in the hobby if their first experience is good. That means more telescopes and accessories sold yearly and long term (again, to perk up your MBA's and revolving door exec's ears: MORE QUARTERLY REVENUE). I'm 100% sure this tripod-shaped-object was chosen for its cost to you and potential profit. No consideration for user experience. No consideration for long term implications to customer retention. Even with included lenses alone (no barlow) it's hard to use for just terrestrial viewing. Whoever chose it has probably never looked through the eyepiece of a telescope and is far less likely to have looked through the eyepiece of this or even similar level budget scopes. Nobody making decisions that affect the function and experience of using your product should be unfamiliar with said product. The mount is the worst part. It's wobbly even fully locked down and adjusting and aiming with the Alt-Az is jerky along with that wobbliness and shakiness. I could CAD up a stamped steel design or even a better plastic one (if you specify a proper grade of plastic) that would be cheap to manufacture and charge you nothing for it, not even giving me credit for doing it. What drunk would choose a cantilevered adjustable alt-az mount (It's clear this is just a light camera tripod)? Easiest would be for you to have someone who cares about the product and customer experience to try out some tripods and pick the one that works best in terms of function (First Priority!) and cost (if it adds $5-10 to the current price customers will still be happy as long as it works well!).

A good buy and performs as expected. Users are right, the tripod is flimsy and had to used a regular camera's. The fastening is flimsy too and after directing at the moon, the aiming point is dislodged. Otherwise, economically pricedand worth the buy.

Stativet är vekt och ostabilt.

Good products

Works awesome, can see the moonand the craters with it. Definitely a good product for the price

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