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

OK, let's get this straight; this is not an astronomical telescope per se, yet you can do some astronomical observations with it with care. But if you are after a purely astronomical telescope then you had better look at Celestron's other more dedicated astronomical telescopes rather than this one. This is a scope that is intended that you can sling over your back, use as a spotting scope for bird watching, terrestrial scenic views & some night time astronomical use. So if it is a multi-use scope that you require then this is more for you. And for the price you pay for this then even with the rather poor tripod that comes with it that makes night time astronomy a little tricky, you still get a great versatile scope that will cope with most daylight viewing well, and with some care also night time viewing too.So, let's get down to brass tacks; the weakness of this scope lies in the tripod. As it has to be small & light to fit into the supplied backpack then I knew when I bought this scope that for my nocturnal astronomical forays that it wasn't going to cut the mustard much. Hence, when I use it for observing any of the planets or the moon I use a more robust camera tripod that I used to use for my old (now defunct) SLR camera. This makes moving the scope around a much smoother operation, and more sturdy too. The supplied tripod will work OK'ish, but you have to be a little more careful & precise when aligning it up to a planet, star or satellite. For day time viewing the supplied tripod would suffice for most occasions as you could keep the tripod as low as possible to the ground & sit on the ground or a small chair to use it. The fixing to use any other tripod with the scope is the standard camera fitting, so fitting the scope on any other tripod is simple. You could of course buy an equatorial mount to fix the scope too if you wanted the best mount for it for astronomical use, but this would set you back quite a bit & also makes the system less portable. Equatorial mounts take some setting up, and to be honest if you were going to pay the price for a mount like that you would most likely also go for a dedicated astronomical telescope too.The lenses supplied with the scope (4mm,10mm & 20mm) give good magnification. As I mostly use this scope for astronomical purposes this gives me good views of the moon, most of the planets (the gas giants Uranus, Neptune & demoted ex-planet Pluto are out of range really with this small scope). Saturn looks great as ever through the scope, especially with the rings open wide; Jupiter & its Galilean moons are a jewel; Mars at closest approach to Earth is good; Venus really doesn't show too much except its phases & the same with Mercury too accept smaller & harder to spot closer in to the sun. The 45 degree viewing prism makes observation with the lenses easy, except when trying to view anything close to zenith. This is always a hard thing to do with the kind of tripod used, even with a sturdier camera tripod as well. The 3 x Barlow lens is a little too much for this scope; a 2 x Barlow lens I think would suit it better, especially for astronomy. For daylight viewing it is more suited, but remember the higher up the viewing magnification you go the less bright the view through the scope is going to be, so that is why unless you use it to view the moon then you are not going to see much with it at night time; coupled with the fact that the tripod (whether the supplied one or a camera one) will not give you the fine control that you need to zoom in on these high magnifications on any objects you are trying to view. The finder scope is a little tricky to set up, so if you intend to do any night time viewing then it is best (if possible) to set this up in the daytime on a stationary distant object, rather than trying to do it at night on a slow moving star or planet.The quality of the scope itself is good, given the price range. I can view M31 quite easily through it on a clear night in the city, so if you have great dark skies where you live then it & a few other galaxies should be quite easy to spot too with this scope. I can pick out quite a few globular & open star clusters with the scope, & of course Orion's nebula is wonderful to view as well through the scope. The view through the scope is normal as we see it, so remember that that if you do decide to go for a dedicated astronomical telescope this may not always be so, hence making terrestrial use of any astronomical telescope annoying in the fact that the view may be inverted.I have had this scope now for nearly six months. I have owned much more expensive & more technical telescopes than this, yet strangely I get more reward & fun out of using this scope for things rather than the more expensive ones. Unless you intend to spend some serious time on astronomy (when the weather permits in the UK at least) then like me you may find that this small scope is all you need. Even at the low price you pay for this scope you still get a large amount of satisfaction from any views from it. And if the worst should happen & you drop or damage it, then you haven't lost too much money on it. Now could you say the same for any serious astronomical telescope? Methinks not!

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.