Best travel telescopes in 2024

Astronomy travel can be a wonderful thing, offering practical astronomers the chance to leave light pollution behind and journey to distant, dark-sky locations. If you're planning for a future stargazing break, you'll need to decide what telescope you're going to take with you.

For a successful astronomy holiday you'll need a compact, lightweight and portable telescope that you can unpack and set up in minutes – it's no good lugging around heavy pieces of equipment.

Not only will your astronomy trip require a suitable 'grab and go' telescope, but if you're planning on travelling far you'll also need a telescope that you can take on a flight either in the baggage hold or as hand luggage.

As well as a lightweight and compact telescope you'll want an instrument that can provide exquisite views of the night sky.

We've put together a list of some of the best portable, quality telescopes that would make for the best travel telescopes. See the link below each selection for a full review of that telescope.

You may also require a good, portable mount that slips in your luggage easily which you can find in our guide to the best telescope mounts.

And, if astronomy holidaying is really your thing, read our recommendations for what to bring on an astronomy camping trip or our simple guide to astronomy travel.

If you're looking for a different kind of telescope, read our guide to the best telescopes for viewing the planets or the best telescopes for beginners.

If imaging the night sky is your thing, discover our pick of the best telescopes for astrophotography.

21 best travel telescopes

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As the name suggests, a tabletop telescope is a telescope that’s been designed to sit on top of a sturdy platform such as a garden table or any other flat, medium-height surface. The Heritage 100P Tabletop comes packaged with two 1.25-inch eyepieces (25mm and 10mm), a 2x Barlow lens and a red-dot finder.

Installation is easy: attach the finderscope, pop in an eyepiece and you can be viewing the heavens in moments. Despite its small size it still gave decent views of a range of celestial wonders. We found it was easy to store and bring out quickly whenever the clouds cleared.

Read our full Heritage 100P Tabletop Dobsonian review.

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Acuter Voyager MAK80 telescope

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The MAK80 is a compact lightweight system measuring only 270mm long (including the eyepiece holder) and a diameter of only 100mm. It weighs 1.8kg and can easily sit in the palm of most hands.

This makes for a portable system that only needs the addition of a tripod, for which there's a ¼-inch tripod thread included. It's ideal for taking to dark-sky sites or as a spotting scope for daytime or night-time use.

What's more, it comes with a light carry case that will help when transporting on a train or plane.

Read our full Acuter Voyager MAK80 review.

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The Evostar 72ED DS-Pro is a satisfying, lightweight scope to use. The optical tube weighs just 1,955g and at 42cm long it’s a short tube system. The the dew shield is also removable, all of which adds up to a great get-up-and-go-anywhere telescope, perfect for viewing and imaging under far-flung dark skies. The 72ED DS-Pro is also an ideal companion to Sky-Watcher’s Star Adventurer travel mount. Indeed, we used it to take images with our Star Adventurer, and found the whole system quick and easy to set up, a great incentive to invest in the telescope.

Thanks to reader Robert Miller for recommending this as one of the best travel telescopes. Robert said: "It is light, easy to pack and has a very nice coarse/fine focusser. It performs superbly on a Vixen VersaGo mount and its resolution seems limited only by aperture and weather. Great views of star fields and globulars. And the price was easy on my budget."

Read our full Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED review.

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In terms of portability it’s difficult to imagine how you could improve on this 61mm aperture refractor’s design. In its most compact form it measures 23cm long by 14cm wide. It’s also light at 1.7kg but retains a solid, well-built feel. The front has a retractable dew shield that extends the overall length by a further 7cm.

Realistically, the ZS61 produces lovely views of larger deep-sky objects and the Moon but if you’re after detailed views of the planets, or splitting tight double stars, this isn’t the scope for you. If you want an ultra-portable instrument that can provide good contrast, colour-corrected views of extended objects, it’s perfect.

Read our full ZenithStar 61 ED review.

The Altair 60 EDF doublet refractor is a lightweight tube assembly that weighs 1.5kg and almost fits in the palm of your hand. It’s ideal for a multitude of purposes, including as a travel scope and for wide-field imaging.

It's suppled as an optical tube only, giving you the flexibility to use your own star diagonal and eyepieces for visual observations, as we did for the review. Also in the box is an extendable dew shield. The view was pin sharp across 85% of the view, with only slight distortion at the edges and little sign of colour fringing, showing that the lens design was doing its job.

Read our full Altair 60 EDF Doublet review.

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This telescope is supplied in a soft, protective carrying case that is small enough to comply with aircraft carry-on luggage regulations, yet leaves plenty of room for a star diagonal and a set of eyepieces. An eyepiece extension tube is included and this holds a secret for casual photographers in the form of a male T-thread.

The inside of the optical tube is fully baffled and painted in a matt black coating. Its robust, single-speed Crayford focuser can be rotated through 360° to help with framing and there is a lock to secure the focus tube once it is in the desired position. The Vixen A62SS refractor is an excellent travelling companion and we would recommend it to any astronomer looking for travel telescopes for observing rather than astrophotography.

Read our full Vixen A62SS refractor review.

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The Orion StarBlast compact travel refractor is marketed as a great scope to take on trips away, but should also appeal as a very suitable beginners’ instrument. It possesses a 2.5-inch, four-element crown and flint glass objective, a focal length of 520mm, along with an extendable dew shield.

Also included are a Crayford focuser, 20mm and 4mm eyepieces, a 45° erect-view diagonal, a Vixen-style dovetail mounting block and a hard carry case. In keeping with its likely use, we tested the StarBlast on both a small equatorial mount and a sturdy photographic tripod.In the latter configuration we really did appreciate the joys of a truly lightweight and simple setup.

Read our full Orion Starblast 62 review.

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The Skymax-127 is a compact telescope that boasts a Wi-Fi-controllable Go-To mount, promising to make the night sky navigable with the touch of a button.

The Skymax-127’s long focal length (with a focal ratio of f/11.8) makes it great for observing the Moon, planets and double stars, but you can also observe bright deep-sky targets too.

The Wi-Fi control works via the Virtuoso GTi single-arm tabletop mount, which has a wireless network adaptor that enables you to connect and control with a smartphone or tablet.

We got great views of Saturn and its rings, Jupiter's northern belt and Galilean moons, our own Moon's southern hemisphere, Bode's Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy and the Pleiades.

The Sky-Watcher Skymax-127 Virtuoso GTi is a delight to use on a wide range of targets, and can be highly recommended amongst travel telescopes.

Read our full Skymax-127 Virtuoso GTi tabletop telescope review.

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Even the packaging for the StellaMira 90mm ED is compact, the telescope coming in a lockable black carry case.

Another must for travel telescopes is sturdy construction, given that they may be hauled on and off aeroplanes and rattled around in car boots.

The StellaMira, you'll be pleased to hear, fits the bill, and although the carbon-fibre tube keeps the weight down to a 3.3kg, the telescope doesn't at all feel flimsy.

Instead, this is a competitively priced, compact instrument that we found offers excellent views and high-quality astro imaging results in a convenient, well thought out package.

Read our full StellaMira 90mm ED triplet apo refractor review.

The ASCENT 70 ED refractor is a cost-effective travel option for amateur astronomers. We were interested to see what it could do both as a visual system and as an imaging scope. It's a 2.75-inch, 420mm focal length telescope just 300mm long; 380mm with the dew shield extended.

The back of the focuser unscrews to reveal a M54x0.75 female thread – with the right adaptor, you could attach a camera and use this scope as a telephoto lens for astrophotography. What impressed us most about the Starwave 70 ED was how light it is – just 2kg. The scope is supplied in a soft, well-padded case with several compartments for accessories which is a must have for travel telescopes.

Read our full ASCENT 70 ED review.

The Altair 72mm EDF is marketed as a telescope for astronomers who need a small, lightweight instrument for packing up and taking on their travels. Weighing just 2.5kg and at a length of 32.5cm, the telescope is clearly portable and suitable for astronomy travel. It is also short enough to mount on a star tracker mount.

We attached a DSLR and found the focuser extended smoothly and felt very secure. A dual-speed dial made precision focus easy, while focus wheels offer a good level of resistance.

Read our full Altair 72mm EDF review.

The Zenithstar 61 II APO is a fantastic instrument for those interested in wide-field, low power viewing, and the great thing about it is it's very portable.

The telescope is just 25cm in length with focuser and dew shield retracted, and its 14cm from the bottom of the mounting plate to top of the saddle handle bar.

The Zenithstar 61 II comes with a padded carry-case too, making the whole package suitable for those who want to take their travel telescopes to far-flung dark-sky corners of the world.

Plus, at 2.15kg the main telescope with mounting ring, ‘Cat Series’ saddle handle bar and mounting plate is easy to carry. All you need is a camera and you've got yourself a quality astrophotography setup.

The UniGuide guidescope is 25cm long, 7cm high and 5.5cm wide, and can be integrated into your setup for long-exposure imaging.

Read our full Zenithstar 61 II apo review

The lightweight and compact design of the RVO Horizon 72ED makes for a great travel scope. Stowed and collapsed with dew shield and focuser retracted, it is only 34cm long. The optical tube weighs 2.68kg, making it light enough to hold in your hand and easy to remove from the tube rings to adjust position.

The 72ED is also sold in a £947 imaging package aimed at deep-sky astrophotographers, which includes a 1.0x rotatable field flattener and a finder/guidescope.

The 72ED's colour correction is spot on and, even when we pushed the magnification, we found views of deep-sky objects were superb. This is a cracking instrument for both wide-field observing and imaging, delivering both on the lightweight necessities and the powerful performance seen in quality travel telescopes.

Read our full RVO Horizon 72ED review.

Weighing just under 1.8kg and being only 33cm in length with the dew shield retracted, this scope is great for astronomy trips and is supplied with a soft travel case. Easy and quick to set up, it’s ideal for astronomy on the go. As an imaging instrument, the scope plus reducer proved very capable and the wide field of view offered makes it ideal for photographing extended deep-sky objects, such as the Pleiades cluster in Taurus or Rosette Nebula in Monoceros.

Sheer ease of use made this scope a pleasure to observe and image with. It’s easy to see how it could become a must-have companion for holidays and star parties, or just to observe or photograph special events without the hassle of transporting and setting up heavier equipment.

Read our full Starwave Travel 70 EDT-R review.

The Horizon 60ED is lightweight and portable: perfect for 'grab-and-go' astrophotography and also for bringing with you on a trip to a far-flung dark-sky site. The complete setup, including a DSLR camera, weighs less than 3kg, and setting up for an astrophotography session is quick and easy. We found we didn't need to fiddle about with the setup, making it a good option for dark-sky sites away from home.

Protecting travel telescopes is incredibly important, so this model comes in an aluminium carry case that houses the telescope, guidescope, dovetail bars and field flattener with room for more. The case also protects the scope during storage and travelling, and is lightweight and lockable. Measuring 41 x 23.5 x 18cm, it's within the limits for airline cabin baggage.

Read our full RVO Horizon 60ED Doublet refractor review.

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The Vixen FL55SS's tube measures just 282mm and weighs 1.5kg It's a compact, lightweight refractor that offers premium features in a portable package. The FL55SS is a dual-purpose telescope suitable for visual astronomy, or with the addition of a dedicated lens kit, for fast, wide-field astrophotography.

It uses fluorite, which has optical properties that make it very desirable as light can pass through it with minimal dispersion, unlike glass. In practice this means that the overall view is sharper, as all the colours of light entering the telescope are focused to a single point, rather than being dispersed into a fuzzier appearance.

Read our full Vixen FL55SS review.

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Once we’d unpacked the 70 EDQ-R, the first thing we noticed about the telescope is how light it is: with a Canon EOS 70D DSLR camera attached it weighed just 2.1kg. This really does make it a grab-and-go telescope for even the smallest of mounts.

Even with a smaller aperture, the change in CMOS cameras over the last few years means images of all sorts of objects are achievable with this telescope. That makes it an ideal travel scope and a good option to take with you on longer trips instead of a set of camera lenses.

Read our full Altair Starwave 70 EDQ-R review.

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The FOT106 has an f/6 106mm objective lens with a focal length of 636mm, which makes it a great telescope for observing or imaging larger star clusters, galaxies and nebulae. It's just begging to be taken to a dark-sky site for a proper observing session.

It comes in an aluminium case featuring a range of accessories including a matching field-flattener. This foam-padded, locking carry case should reliably protect most travel telescopes during transit, and we found it kept the who assembly together well, including field-flattener and rings.

The case measures 70cm x 24cm x 23cm, making it certainly manageable and portable for taking to dark-sky sites.

Read our fullFounder Optics FOT106 review.

Buying a travel telescope second hand

If you're looking to save a few pounds from the budget, then a second hand travel telescope might be the best way forward.

Fortunately there is a thriving marked for second hand astronomy equipment, and you can find out more in our guide to buying a second hand telescope.

Below we've included a few travel telescopes that aren't available for sale, but which you might want to snap up if they appear for sale second hand.

The solid look and feel of the Starwave 110ED-R is a result of a serious reduction in the weight of the scope. We were really very pleased about just how easy the telescope was to lift from its padded case, and we reckon the 6.8kg Starwave 110Ed-R is a brilliant compromise between both aperture and portability. It's an instrument that will please those who like to travel to far-flung, dark corners of the world to no end.

It boasts a 110mm doublet lens for viewing at an enjoyable resolution, and what's more, it's easy to take with you and transport around in its padded case.

The length and the balance of the 110ED-R made it a simple fit for our EQ mount and sat neatly in a satisfying, central position, because the lens cell and focuser are only 60cm apart.

This model offers supreme comfort while observing objects at a range of altitudes.

Read our full Altair Starwave 110ED-R review.

With an optical system designed to eliminate two of the major issues that can spoil a photograph – colour problems and star shape issues – the AG70 removes the need for the likes of coma correctors and relieves the associated headache of achieving optimal spacing that tends to come with them. Setting up the telescope for use involved little more than removing it from the box and putting it on a mount.

The supplied tube rings and dovetail offer a little movement to help with balancing, and the scope is light and compact. It should sit comfortably on portable travel mounts. Sheer simplicity of use made the little astrograph a pleasure to operate, as once the camera was focused we were able to just get on with the job of taking photographs.

Read our full Tecnosky AG70 review.

The GTF 102 is supplied with a high-quality soft padded case which is an excellent accessory for travel telescopes. It is very substantial and protects the telescope in transit very well indeed. With both carry handles and a shoulder strap, transporting the scope is easy.

We were very pleasantly surprised by the shape of stars across the field of view and right into the corners. The two-element internal field flattener was certainly doing its job and so too was the triplet lens, as chromatic aberration was also well controlled.

Read our full William Optics GTF 102 review.

What did we miss?

If you feel your own telescope is perfect for astronomy travel and should be on our list, let us know! Email us at contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com or get in touch via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Iain Todd is BBC Sky at Night Magazine's Staff Writer.