My first time dealing with Celestron and unfortunately a bad experience. I felt the information on their website relevant to our purchase was blatantly misleading.My father wanted to surprise me with a telescope of my own. After much reading on their website, he decided to buy the Celestron TravelScope 70. That was a few months ago. Due COVID-19 lockdowns, I couldn't fly to visit my parents as originally intended, until recently. That is when I was surprised with a brand new telescope. I unpacked the package and "installed" the telescope. I tried observing a few objects with my father...Optics-wise, the product works relatively okay. There is some aberration under some circumstances, but otherwise optics are perhaps surprisingly okay for such a minimal scope. The tripod is not usable. The finding scope ("cercatore") is also barely usable. The eyepieces (20mm and 10mm) are fairly alright. The focusing mechanism is relatively poor, but it's mostly because of the even poorer tripod that the drawbacks of the focusing mechanism are felt - a better tripod would make focusing much pleasanter even with the existing mechanism.However... It is not the optics or even the equipment that make this a 2 star review (had that been all, this would have still been a 4 star review - considering the low price at which it is sold as I later found out).What makes this a 2 star review is the misleading information on Celestron's website and in their user manual for this scope.My dad, a complete beginner, believed the description on the site and was so looking forward to observing planets with me - perhaps his greatest dream. Celestron's website clearly states about this scope:"The Travel Scope can view the planets, moon, star clusters and brighter deep sky objects like the Orion Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy at night..."The user manual of this scope goes a big step further - on page 13 it has a section titled "Observing the planets". Under this title, the following text appears:"You can see Venus go through its lunar-like phases. Mars can reveal a host of surface detail and one, if not both, of its polar caps. You may be able to see the cloud belts of Jupiter and the great Red Spot (if it is visible at the time you are observing). In addition, you will also be able to see the moons of Jupiter as they orbit the giant planet. Saturn, with its beautiful rings, is visible at moderate power."Reality however differs from these poetic descriptions very much. You can certainly not see planets with this scope (not to mention some of the other objects on their list). To make matters worse, Celestron even included a beautiful magnified picture of Jupiter in the manual - a sight you certainly cannot view with this scope. Same goes for an ultra-magnified moon view that surely couldn't have come from this scope kit. However - to be fair, you can get decent views of the moon with this scope (just not as magnified as the user manual portrays them). And probably also of the sun with appropriate filters. But you should be well informed that these are the main objects you can observe, other than terrestrial viewing.I think Celestron should have made sure that the info on their website is much more accurate. To say that you can "observe planets with this telescope" (or some of the other objects on their list), is just as true as if I were to say that I can "observe planets" with the naked eye. Technically, yes, you can observe them with the naked eye. But it is unfair to market a product with language - and pictures! - that suggest that this product would deliver much improved views in comparison to the views of the naked eye. And it is certainly not an improvement on our average binoculars...The fact that Celestron used such misleading information is bad enough with any kind of customer. However, especially seeing as this telescope is heavily marketed for beginners, who rarely have any clue about telescopes, I think Celestron should have taken extra care to stick with accurate information. They did not take extra care. It seems that they did not take any care at all, in fact, beginner or no beginner.Especially when marketing to beginners... Today's beginners are tomorrow's avid astronomy fans who will always upgrade. Shame to leave such a bad impression from the start!TLDR; optics are okay, definitely considering the price; information on Celestron's website is highly misleading though; make sure to read on independent third party websites prior to making any purchase. Personally, I would avoid making any purchase with such a company who uses misleading information as a form of marketing. It's a bad sign if you can't get sales by using honesty and accuracy in the info you give!
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Celestron is a company based in Torrance, California, United States, that manufactures telescopes and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and accessories manufactured by its parent company, the Synta Technology Corporation...