Customer Ratings & Reviews

So far, great little starter telescope! Only four stars since the phone adapter is so frustrating to use. I bought this for my school-aged son who's obsessed with space, and it has been a hit. Easy to set up with minimal help from an adult. I even like to use it myself during the day to watch wildlife far away. Moon filter is really cool.

Nice size. Great starter telescope with different lenses. Came with nice travel bag. Not bad for the price.

Travelscope 80 using an iPhone 11 Pro. 100 frames stacked extracted from 3 second videos using the programs PIPP and RegiStax and a Celestron NeXYZ phone adapter also on my astromaster tripod. I also bumped my review up to 5 stars because of how much I actually use this OTA, just not the tripod. I have that to my roommate for live FB videos

I bought this for my husband he’s been wanting one for my son and him to use at night to see the stars in our backyard. It took a minute to calibrate but it’s serving it’s purpose. I love that it came in a backpack so we can take it camping once summer comes around. My husband really loves it soo much that it’s in display in his office.

Plenty included. Everything someone needs to get started. Comes with well written instructions also. Nicely constructed. Telescopic images as seen by the individual through the eyepiece have good detail and clarity. Even comes with a protective tinted lens for viewing a bright moon. I'm giving it five stars for what it is. A beginner package to get started learning.

Great decent item, absolutely works well it’s just need a little adjustment, but overall worth the price

This made for a great Christmas present. I only wish BEST BUY had some on display in-store since I didn’t know much about telescopes when buying this.

I can hardly see through the scope. Do not buy. Spend a little more for a better scope.

I picked this up as a gift for my nephew, who primarily wanted something that would let him get a better look at the moon from his backyard. As I have never owned a telescope before, this seemed like a good pick. After a couple uses, however, I've come to realize that there are definitely some shortcomings. The included carrying case is not particularly well designed for all the equipment you get. The main scope and its tripod fit well and are restrained by straps, but that's about as much as I can say for it. There are a multitude of smaller accessory pockets which are all far too small to fit the eyepieces that ship with the scope, meaning they're more or less just left to rattle around in the bottom. This doesn't strike me as a great way to store any kind of optics, especially in a travel bag. The tripod is also fairly underwhelming. It's a fairly standard aluminum tripod of the type usually used for small cameras. It doesn't move particularly smoothly, nor does it do much to stabilize the scope when you look into it. For my nephew, it's fine. He can keep the legs folded up so that the whole thing is a bit less top heavy. But if you raise it up to the level of an adult, it's going to shake. Finally, the instructions you get are very limited. Most of what I learned about how to use this scope came from looking online, so you should do your research ahead of time. That said, there is some good stuff to be had here. The optics appear to be of good quality, it was fairly easy to get focused, and you get a good range of eyepieces (which I had not realized are all standardized, so they can be brought over to other telescopes.) It's great for its intended purpose of viewing the moon. And with the app helping guide you you may even be able to catch a glimpse of a planet, though I wouldn't expect to be able to see much if any detail given the fairly small size of the lens. Really of you were to just put this on a more substantial tripod, most of the more serious issues would be resolved. My recommendation: this would probably be a good deal if you can pick it up on sale, or if you're mostly looking for something to use for terrestrial viewing. If it had cost half as much I would be singing it's praises. But at its standard price point, it's competing against a lot of other scopes that might not come with a carrying case or tripod, but would work a lot better and see further. That makes it hard for me recommend to anyone looking to get into this particular hobby, and absolutely impossible for anyone who's already invested in it and likely has much better equipment to compare it against.

Telescope is a good material overall. I had lots of issues with the phone holder being too heavy with the phone attached and lining up with the lens. Because of the weight from the telescope and phone, the dials were never tight enough to keep it in a set position. Also, if you wear glasses, the constant adjusting can cause some eye strain and pain. Very good telescope but too much of a hassle for me.

The x2 lens is perfect for viewing Jupiter and Saturn. The lense also offers a view of the moon for greater detail. Use the moon filter to view the moon when the moon is at its brightest. It is best that once you have the fix on the moon or celestial body, not to grab the telescope. Just carefully place your eye to the viewing lense to avoid bumping the telescope out of alignment. The phone holder is a bit tricky, it takes some practice to take the perfect picture. Well worth the price.

We got this telescope so that we could use our smartphone to take night sky photos. The telescope itself works alright, but the tripod is too short making it hard to line up stars unless you place it on like a picnic table. We got a nice expensive fluid head tripod that extends to over six feet and it makes a world of difference. The smartphone adapter for photo taking is very rickety and takes way too long to attach and adjust, there must be an easier setup but this isn't it. I was using an iPhone 11 and could not get a good photo. When looking at the moon it does fill the viewfinder and you can make at exceptional detail, so yes the lenses and the telescope itself work, but the tripod and phone adapter are junk and make for a less than average rating. The ability to use this during the day as a spotting scope is a great feature, and also works well even with the cheap tripod. The inclusion of a backpack with compartments is also a welcome addition.

The telescope it self is great and good quality but the tripod that comes with it is too light to aim precisely. Also feels too fragile to add weights for stability.

I didn't understand the instructions at first, but once I figured it out it worked pretty nice, but there's too much light pollution in my area to give a good, accurate review, it's also a bit touchie even though I tighten it to the max it'll still move, so be careful with it.

Love the telescope. It is easy to set up and take down. It is hard to adjust the scope up and down without losing what you are viewing. When viewing the moon which takes up a lot of the view, I think I have it in the right spot, but when I let go of the bar to look through the lens the weight of the scope causes it to drift outside of the range of viewing the moon. Especially if the camera attachment is being used.

Great beginner telescope. Transports easily and gets you some great views.

Just got this home tonight and unboxed/haven't officially used it yet. Keep in mind, I own many telescopes and have enjoyed astronomy for many years. I wasn't expecting much for the price, but here are my first impressions: This is a plastic telescope with "ok" optics, not something for any "serious" astronomy/observing, other than the moon or a fleeting glimpse of Saturn or possibly Mars. It will give a good close-up view of the moon surface, but not at a high resolution. Mars will look like a small reddish circle (SMALL), and will be able to tell that Saturn has rings, but will not be much more than a yellowish circle that has a slight bulge around the middle (the rings). It might be okay for terrestrial viewing (distant mountains/landscapes, etc.), so don't expect greatness. The construction is all plastic, with only a few metal parts. This makes the entire setup very lightweight and easy to carry, which is it's strongest attribute. Don't tighten any of the screws/knobs more than just enough to keep things from falling off, otherwise you risk stripping the threads. The OTA tube itself is plastic with a decal covering that looks neat, but it's still just plastic. I keep mentioning plastic as that means the entire assembly could be damaged/broken if treated roughly, so just be nice to it and it should work well. The tripod leaves a lot to be desired. Yes it is lightweight, but is very susceptible to vibration from even just a slight puff of wind which will result in a "shaky" image. The pan/tilt (Alt/Az) controls are identical to a cheap camera tripod (in fact, this can certainly be used for a small "point-n-shoot" type camera just fine) and do not lend themselves to easy tracking of objects (remember, the moon and earth are moving relative to each other and will not stay centered in the eyepiece for but a few moments - this requires a constant and gentle "tracking" of objects as they move across the sky). Mine did not come with the Barlow lens, but I have other high quality eye pieces and filters that I can use (it takes standard 1.25" eyepieces). The included eyepieces (10mm and 20mm) are okay for this scope. Better eyepieces are available but won't be of big benefit on this scope. Honestly, this would not be my first choice in a beginner telescope, as for a little more money ($150 range) you can get a much bigger/better scope that would provide better planetary viewing. This might be a nice thing to bring along on a family camping trip to keep the kids occupied, as it is a very lightweight and compact unit, but like I said above: don't expect greatness. I purchased this for a specific purpose of sighting in my rifle instead of a much more costly spotting scope. This actually provides much better magnification than an entry-level spotting scope sold at sporting goods retailers for a fraction of the cost, with a trade off that this scope isn't as "field-durable" as the more costly options. For my purposes, this is a fantastic choice. For astronomers, this is below average. You DO get the Starry Night software included, which is a nice software package for astronomy, although I still prefer Stellarium. There is also a free ebook download with amazing images of the moon. The cell phone adapter isn't anything special, although it will allow you to actually take some nice pics with your phone. The cell phone mount is not capable of supporting a DSLR (nor is the scope or tripod, for that matter), so this is not an ideal setup for astrophotography aside from taking a few memento types of pics to post on social media. The backpack is padded with a few pockets and a divider that will hold everything, but won't provide much in the way of protection from bumps/drops/etc. My review sounds very negative but I'm trying to be honest... it's an okay product, and it will work as intended. Just don't set too high of expectations and if you are looking at starting out with astronomy, I feel there are better options. Celestron is a great company and they make quality products, so this would be a better choice than an equally priced knock-off brand, but again - make sure your expectations are realistic for a sub-$100 telescope.

The telescope provides great pictures of the moon. Although, that is about all you can see with this telescope. The stars are simply zoomed in. You'll need something bigger to see farther. Although, this is a great travel scope, convenient and easy. The base is a little tricky to move as its either too tight or too loose...it just takes a little more time or maybe a really steady hand!

Good optics for a small scope Stows and transports easily I wonder about the durability of some of the plastic parts, especially the diagonal. Tripod not the sturdiest and is easily made jumpy especially when trying to use the higher magnifications.

Well crafted. Is very easy to use and has multiple features that add to the ease of use.