Celestron AstroMaster 70AZ Telescope

The AstroMaster 70AZ is excellent for bright solar system objects. You can expect to see detailed craters and mountains on the Moon, the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, and the phases of Venus. Brighter deep-sky objects like the Orion Nebula (M42) and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) will be visible as faint smudges from a dark location.

Yes, its no-tool setup and simple point-and-look manual mount make it very user-friendly for beginners and children, with adult supervision. The total kit weighs only 10.8 lbs, making it easy to transport and set up. The erect image diagonal also allows for intuitive daytime use.

You use the included StarPointer™ red dot finderscope. After a simple alignment process, you look through the finder and move the telescope until the red dot is on your target. Then, when you look in the eyepiece, the object will be in your field of view. The included Starry Night software will help you learn where to point the telescope.

The AstroMaster 70AZ is designed for visual observation. While you can hold a smartphone up to the eyepiece to take basic photos of the Moon, the manual alt-azimuth mount does not track the stars, making it unsuitable for long-exposure astrophotography of faint deep-sky objects.

The two eyepieces provide different magnifications. The 20mm eyepiece gives a lower magnification of 45x, which provides a wider field of view for finding objects and observing large star clusters. The 10mm eyepiece provides a higher magnification of 90x, which is better for viewing details on planets and the Moon.

Never look at the Sun through a telescope without a certified, full-aperture solar filter that covers the front of the telescope. Looking at the sun without the proper filter will cause permanent and irreversible eye damage. This telescope does not include a solar filter.