Celestron Travel Scope 70 Portable Refractor Telescope, 70mm Aperture, Fully-Coated Glass Optics, Tripod Review (2026)

Who The Travel Scope 70 Fits

This is a 70mm achromatic refractor aimed at travelers, campers and first time buyers who want a telescope light enough to carry rather than one built for serious deep sky work. The 3.3 pound total kit weight, including the tube, tripod and backpack, makes it realistic to bring on a hiking trip or a flight in carry on luggage. With a 400mm focal length and f/5.7 focal ratio, it delivers wide, bright views well suited to the Moon, Saturn's rings, Jupiter's moons and open star clusters, with a highest useful magnification around 168x under good conditions. Buyers hoping to resolve fine planetary detail or track down faint galaxies should look past this model, since the modest aperture caps how much light it can gather, and it works best as an easy entry point rather than a long term primary instrument.

Specs And What's In The Box

The optical tube uses fully coated glass optics in an achromatic doublet design with a built in lens shade to improve contrast, paired with a 5x24 finderscope and a 45 degree erect image star diagonal that keeps the view right side up for both sky and daytime use. Celestron includes two eyepieces, a 20mm giving 20x magnification and a 10mm giving 40x, which cover the practical range this aperture can support before the image starts to dim and soften. The kit ships with an adjustable aluminum tripod that extends from about 22 to 52 inches, a padded backpack sized to carry the assembled tube, and access to Celestron's Starry Night Basic planetarium software and the SkyPortal app for finding targets. Celestron backs the telescope with a 2 year warranty and a 30 day return window.

Setting It Up And Using It Outside

Assembly is simple enough for a first timer, since the tube mounts to the tripod head with a single knob and the finderscope only needs a quick daytime alignment on a distant object before dark. The pan handle and clutch on the alt azimuth mount let you nudge the tube smoothly toward a target, which works well at low power for scanning the Moon or a star field. Push past the 20mm eyepiece to the 10mm for higher magnification, though, and the lightweight tripod starts to show its limits, transmitting hand tremors and wind gusts into a shaky view that takes a few seconds to settle. Storage and travel are the strong points here, since the whole kit zips into its backpack and survives being tossed in a car trunk or checked bag without needing realignment each time.

How It Compares With Other Travel Scopes

Against Sky-Watcher's StarTravel 102mm, which carries more aperture and a steadier AZ3 mount at extra bulk, the Travel Scope 70 gives up light gathering and stability in exchange for a genuinely pocketable size and lower cost of entry. Compared with Celestron's own Travel Scope 60DX, which trims aperture further in favor of a phone adapter and backpack bundle, the 70mm model strikes a better balance between portability and usable views, since the larger objective lens noticeably brightens the Moon and planets. Owners who outgrow the 70mm aperture within their first year can lean on Celestron's broader eyepiece and accessory lineup to upgrade the viewing experience without replacing the whole telescope, which is one of the real advantages of buying into an established brand.

Verdict

The Travel Scope 70 does what its name promises, delivering a genuinely portable first telescope with bright, wide views of the Moon and planets for campers, travelers and casual stargazers. Fully coated optics and a sensible eyepiece pairing make the most of the modest aperture, and the included backpack means it actually gets used instead of sitting in a closet. Anyone planning to observe at higher power regularly, or chase fainter deep sky targets on a more consistent basis, should budget for a sturdier tripod from the start, or step up to a larger aperture scope like the StarTravel 102 instead of this one.

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