Customer Reviews

Celestron 21035 70mm Travel Scope

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this telescope so that I would have something to look at the sky with when I travel to observatories in the northern and southern hemispheres. For the price this telescope is a pretty good value; it's portable (nicely fits into my suitcase) and reasonably powerful. It's great for looking at star clusters which need a wide field of view to fit the whole thing into view. This was the first telescope I've had where I could fit the entire Pleiades cluster into the field of view. At home, it's a great telescope since it's fast to set up and take outside for a few minutes. You may not think about it, but the amount of work to set up a telescope will translate directly into how much you use it.

The only con that I see with the telescope is that the tripod it comes with is fairly unstable; it's a regular camera tripod. It may be a bit frustrating trying to center on objects since it's a bit wobbly and hard to precisely center on something since it flexes a bit as well. Centering with the higher magnification eyepiece is even more tricky. I found that a different tripod I had for my camera works a bit better. Someone buying this for casual use may not notice, but the image quality does degrade toward the edges of the field of view; that's to be expected since it has such fast optics and wide field of view.

It is a nice telescope for the fledgling hobbyist or for those that need to leave the city to see the stars. Easy to set up and maintain. The tripod that comes with it leaves much to be desired though. Its simply too light and will make the telescope jump as your trying to view through it. It is also hard to make fine adjustments. Expect to buy to better tripod.
That said the telescope is decently powered with its 2 eye pieces. Celestron is using the standard eye piece size so if you want a little more magnification just buy the appropriate eye piece. They are easy to find. Overall I expected as much and am pleased with what I got.

I have to say, I am very impressed. The packaging was perfect, and the delivery was very fast with this product. This made the perfect gift for my 11 yr old son, and he loves the fact that it came with its own travel bag, so that he can take it with him every where he goes. Oh, and I looked at the sky from it as well, and the stars and the moon could not look any more beautiful. I am very happy with this item.

I got this telescope for Christmas. The optics are good and pleased with the images I get from it. However, the tripod is very light, flimsy and not as sturdy. I would have like a better construction material of the tripod. Even though the optics are good, the plastic cyclindar frame that surrounds the edge of the large front lens can easily fall off. It slips off and on like a cap. It is not designed to be fixed or snap in place. I am not please with this design.

Another issue is the travel bag. Ths bag is worthless. It has two large velcro compartments one for the telescope and the other for the tripod. However, they do not snug well inside the compartment. It's very loose. The bag inside also has a velcro strap on top to hold the upper tripod and upper telescope in place. These straps are very loose and cannot be tighten to snug the tripod and telescope in place. The straps don't even align well to get a good hold of the telescope. Also, there is no compartments to keep other parts of the telescopes in place like the finder and eye pieces. I guess you just have to shove the pieces in the large compartments and hope they don't fall out if bag is dropped or rest on its side. I can get an ordinary school backpack without compartments from Walmart to do a better job.

The instruction manual is OK. It doesn't really even explain the usage of the bag itself on how to pack the telescope and tripod for good care and maintenance during travel knowing how loose everything fits in the bag. Very disappointed in Celeston.

It's not worth the full retail price unless you get a good discount online or coupon to use.

I purchased this for my son (5), who is completely fascinated with astronomy right now. I have no prior experience with telescopes, but did quite a lot of comparison shopping online. This seemed to be a great value, and I am happy with it so far. We do a lot of hiking, so the backpack should prove to be useful. No complaints with the telescope, the tripod seems a little flimsy though. Overall, I would say this is a good deal - I can't imagine there being too much difference between models in this price range.

The 70 mm Celestron telescope was a good purchase. The optics on the main scope have good clarity and are able to easily separate Beta Cygni, better known as Albireo. It is light and easy to set up. The down sides are it is light and is easily blown around in the wind and because it is compact it is better used while sitting on a chair. The mount is a bit shaky and is a challenge lock in place and not move from the target. Over all I was very impressed with the clarity of the optics and the travel size! I bought this to take camping and to travel to remote locations. I would recommend this for a beginner and anyone looking for a good little travel scope.

This scope works great for the size and is very portable. You do need better eyepieces and a better diagonal (which I already own) to get the most out of this scope but the included eyepieces are acceptable. The two negatives are the tripod and finder scope. It's difficult to move easily and the included spotter scope is pretty useless. I rigged a red dot finder to the scope for much improved usability. As for the tripod, I've taken the attachment head off and added some white lithium grease to make movement more fluid. You could just find a better tripod but it's portability may be effected. Overall though images are sharp and crisp for casual observations.

Telescope was brought for my 12 year old grandsons birthday. Seemed easy for him to set up and learn the mechanics to use it. We were pleased.

I'm in Afghanistan, we decided to get a telescope for looking at the stars and planets out here since there's much less light pollution in western Afghanistan than there is anywhere in the US. At $60 with free shipping the price was right, and it only took a week and a half to get out here. Setup was easy, and right away I was able to look at Jupiter and see four of its moons. Then I looked at our moon and saw crisply defined craters. Haven't looked at much else yet. The tripod, as noted by others, is a little buggy. But the price is right, and you can get a better tripod pretty cheaply. I probably won't bother, we have enough stuff out here that I can put the tripod on top of that I don't really need to extend the tripod legs fully.

I bought this scope specifically to do astro-photography, and serve as a long-range lens for my camera. It works great, and does all that I expected of it. A good buy!