Kids’ telescopes
A small telescope, or a telescope that explains itself?
Both are sold for children from eight, and they are not the same object. One is a 70 mm refractor with a tripod, three eyepieces and a diagonal; the other is a fixed-magnification metal spyglass with a booklet about how a refractor works. Only one of them has a mount at all.
| Compared on | JUNIOR 70/400 (backpack set) | Fernrohr |
|---|---|---|
| Mount steadiness | Not published by the maker. | None — hand-held |
| Aperture | 70 mm (from the title) | The listing does not carry it |
| Focal length | 400 mm (from the title) | The listing does not carry it |
| Eyepiece fitting | 24.5 mm, named in the supplied-items list | Not published by the maker. |
| Finder type | Not published by the maker. | Not published by the maker. |
| Tripod height | Not published by the maker. | Not published by the maker. |
| Assembly effort | From 8 years, as the maker states it | From 8 years |
| Supplied contents | H20, H12 and H6 eyepieces, backpack, 5x24 finder, star diagonal, 1.5x erecting lens, tripod, phone holder | Instruction booklet explaining refractor construction and use |
A tick means one listing published something the other did not, or published a better figure. It does not mean the product is better, and the column is not a score out of anything: a maker who says less loses lines here without losing a comparison. The two verdicts below are where the page is settled.
The telescope of the two. Seventy millimetres, a tripod, three eyepieces and a finder, in a backpack. Its eyepieces are 24.5 mm rather than the 1.25 in standard, which means nothing else on this site fits it — a ceiling, but one that only matters if the interest lasts.
The one that teaches rather than shows. A fixed 30x with no mount, sold with a booklet that explains what a refractor does. It publishes neither aperture nor focal length, so what it will show cannot be worked out — and hand-held at 30x, what it shows will be moving.
It is a problem hand-held: thirty times magnifies tremor thirty times, and finding anything at that power without a mount is difficult. The magnification itself is reasonable for the Moon.
Because 1.25 in is the standard everything else uses. A 24.5 mm fitting means the telescope keeps the eyepieces it came with, and nothing bought later will fit without an adapter.
They answer different questions. One is an instrument to look through; the other is an explanation of how looking through one works. The verdicts above say what each actually is rather than ranking them.
70 mm aperture · 400 mm focal length · from age 8
The BRESSER JUNIOR 70/400 in its backpack version, with three 24.5 mm eyepieces, a star diagonal, a 1.5x erecting lens, a tripod and a phone holder.
Best for: A child from about eight who will carry and set up the telescope without help
≈ £85 / €64
30x fixed magnification · metal tube · from age 8
A fixed 30x spyglass-style telescope in a metal tube, sold as an experiment set for children from eight with an instruction booklet explaining how a refractor works.
Best for: A child who wants something to carry on a walk and look at the Moon with
≈ £20 / €18
Any figure written into the body of this page was true on the day it was written. The amount shown next to each instrument is requested from the retailer as the page loads, and it is that amount, not the text, that stands.
