Do you need a compact, lightweight, portable telescope?
As is often said of cameras, “The best one is the one you have with you.” For a telescope, that means the one that’s small enough to keep with you, wherever you are. Whether you’re on a safari in the outback, or camped out in a studio apartment in the city, small is beautiful as long as your view through the eyepiece is exciting.
You stand a better chance of seeing the deep sights of the universe by taking a small telescope to a very-dark-sky location than by keeping a not-very-portable larger scope at home under light-polluted skies.
Whether you travel or are simply storage-space-challenged (or both), our editors have selected the best “grab and go” telescopes for you:
Editors‘ Choice:
Pentax PF-80ED-A (Angled View) – “Spotting Scope”
- [For photography, pick the Or PF80ED-A Straight-Through]
- Refractor (mount, tripod and eyepieces sold separately)
- Clearest and sharpest “grab and go” compact telescope
If you need an extremely portable, super-rugged spotting scope with superb optics and your budget is flexible, you will not find a better small telescope than Pentax’s PF-80ED. This remarkable instrument can pack a lifetime of visual memories into its 16.3-inch (41.5 cm), 3.6-lb. (1.6 kg) frame.
Credit: Pentax
For the most comfortable observing, order the Angled View model (“A”). If you’re a photographer, pick the “straight-through” model instead. It can make a powerful telephoto lens for your DSLR or mirrorless camera.
When pointed at the night sky, the PF-80ED excels. The “ED” stands for extra-low dispersion glass, which gives you the precise hue of planets with little “chromatic aberration” around the edges, as well as tack-sharp stars and a deep contrast range to pick out fine detail in nebulae.
You’ll need to purchase your eyepieces separately. We’d recommend that you buy at least one high-quality eyepiece to get the most out of your significant investment in the PF-80. Pentax makes fine ones, but any 1.25-inch astronomy eyepiece will fit.
Up front, near the 3.1-inch (8 cm) objective lens, you’ll find a hood that can slide forward to shield the optics from unwanted light and protect it from water. Thisfeature is commonly found in much bigger, research-grade refractors used in astronomy.
During the day, the PF-80 is probably the best “spotting scope” you’ll ever use. If you’re a birder or a sports fan (watching skiers or racing boats, for example), you’ll appreciate the razor-sharp focus and superb color accuracy of this instrument. Long-gun shooting clubs love the PF-80ED’s ability to resolve small caliber marks on faraway targets (for example, .22 ammo hits at 175-yards (160 meters)).
And this beast is rugged. It’s rubberized for shock and sealed for truly waterproof operation. It won’t fog up internally, no matter the temperature/humidity index. If it breaks, fails or drops out of factory specifications, Pentax will repair or replace it (to the original purchaser) for just $19.95 to cover shipping and handling. Pentax calls this its “Worry Free” warranty, and it truly is.
You will need to buy an appropriate tripod; make sure it slides down to short length for travel. Make sure it won’t wiggle in the wind, jiggling your view. And you’ll want to pay attention to the type of mount; we recommend a paddle-handle locking altitude/azimuth rig.
This telescope is a long-term investment. You may hesitate to make this purchase, thinking about the combined cost of the PF-80ED, plus a tripod and eyepieces. But if you are serious about a long-term commitment to a tiny telescope, we urge you to go for this one.
Also Consider:
Orion ShortTube 80-A
- Refractor (mount and tripod sold separately)
- Most cost-effective “grab and go” compact telescope
The Orion ShortTube 80-A lets you pack 3.1inches (8 cm) of aperture into your go-anywhere bag. For about one-seventh the cost of the Pentax PF-80ED, you can get about three-quarters the thrill by buying the Orion.
Credit: Orion Telescopes and Binoculars
The “A” stands for “astronomy.” While you certainly can (and should!) use this excellent scope for animalwatching or sports, Orion has specially coated the optics, and given this model a precisely engineered focuser mechanism, for observing the sky.
You’ll need a few extras. Start by selecting a good camera-style tripod. Orion recommends its heavy-duty model tripod and head (about $160). This tripod folds down to a length of 34inches (86 cm), which is not quite as small as we would like for travel. It is, however, wonderfully sturdy.
If you also intend to use your Orion ShortTube 80-A for daytime terrestrial viewing (animals, people, boats, etc.), be sure to configure it with Orion’s “correct image diagonal” ($57) and “correct image finderscope ” ($100). These will show you the world as it is, rather than reversed left to right or upsidedown, or both,as with some types of astronomical telescopes. If you’d like help selecting accessories, Orion’s Live Chat messaging app is brilliant. We’ve found that being in near real-time contact with a very knowledgeable customer service rep— one who is not all about the “hard sell” — is very reassuring.
Depending on the tripod you pick, your ShortTube 80 rig will weigh about 9 to 14lbs. (4to 6 kg). But it could be small enough to fit into your carry-on bag, so itwon’t tip your checked baggage into the extra-fee zone. We know a couple of world-class eclipse chasers whose go-to “grab and go” is the Orion ShortTube 80-A. Why not join them out there?
Editors’ Budget Choice:
Celestron TravelScope 60 – National Park Edition
- Refractor / AltAz Tripod
- Least costly for night–sky and daytime Earth views
Don’t have much to spend? Have hardly any room? No problem! At the opposite end of the costcurve from the superb Pentax PF 80ED, you’ll find the economic Celestron TravelScope 60 NPF. Everything about this package is small; yes, unfortunately, that means the telescope’s 2.36-inch (6 cm) aperture is a bit puny. But when fully rigged, it can still manage 140x magnification.
Credit: Celestron
This little spotting-scope-style refractor comes in its own backpack. It’s ready to travel: You get a collapsible tripod, a finder scope, two eyepieces (20mm and 8mm), a lunar filter (a must!), an image erecting diagonal (a must!), a 3x Barlow lens “supercharger,” a compass, and a mini LED flashlight on a carabiner. You even get a free download of a National Parks guidebook. That’s a whole lot of instrument for less than $85.
The whole kit, including its backpack, weighs only 3.8 lbs. (1.7 kg). Yes, everything about this kit, including the price, is lightweight. Yes, the thin aluminum tripod trembles in the wind. Yes, the aperture is small and consequently light-limited. No, the lenses and coatings are not laboratory grade. But all the essentials are here. And, if your TravelScope 60 NPF gets damaged out there in the wild, the loss will be more of a “darn it” than an “Oh, $#@*!” moment.
A Computerized Choice:
Celestron NexStar 4SE
- Catadioptric / AltAz / Tripod / Go-To
- Most fully featured Go-To portable
Up to this point, our compact “go scope” choices have all been refractors. But another way to squash down the photon-gathering power of a larger telescope into a smaller size is to fold the light path.
Celestron’s NexStar 4SE is a hybrid of reflector and refractor — a “catadioptric” telescope. Specifically it’s a Maksutov-Cassegrain, a brilliant design that reduces a few of the inherent problems of both refractors (color anomalies) and reflectors (deviation from flatness). On the other hand, having both lenses and mirrors in the mix steals more than a few photons from the star party.
Credit: Celestron
You look through a hole in the primary mirror and out through the front “corrector plate,” so the 4SE can be used as a daytime spotting scope. Just make sure you get an “erect image” diagonal for your eyepiece (and maybe an “image erecting“ finderscope). It’s a little clunky, but it works. With an appropriate adapter, it will also work as a telephoto lens for your DSLR or mirrorless camera.
To make a compact telescope, optics engineers are compelled to reduce the aperture. But, at just over 4inches (10 cm), the NexStar 4SE’s radiation-reaping opening isn’t tiny.
The 4SE is the only one of our “travelers’ scopes” to carry an onboard computer, Celestron’s battle-tested SkyAlign system. It’s not a fully automated setup, but it’s not hard to get the scope and mount aligned and tracking on the sky. Then, you can take advantage of SkyAlign’s 40,000-object database. Theoretically, your view won’t rise to the level of the more expensive “Hobby and Learner” models reviewed above. But you might find yourself in a faraway dark-sky location to which you could not have transported a bigger telescope, so you might end up with a more memorable experience thanks to the smaller telescope.
This small scope is a compressed bundle of performance. [Read our Full Review of the Hybrid Celestron NexStar 4SE ]
Video: Celestron NexStar 4SE Review
But there is one final thing to consider about compact travel telescopes: Your most portable scope might just be a great set of binoculars . [Read our guide: How to Choose Binoculars for Astronomy and Skywatching ]
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