This multipurpose telescope can get up and go, with a handy backpack that makes transportation easy. The 70mm fully coated objective lens has a 350mm focal length (f/5.0) and features one-finger focusing. Everything needed for exploration is included in the kit: the GoScope 350, full-length aluminum tripod with retractable legs and three-way panhead, interchangeable 20mm and 10 mm eyepieces, a Stargazing CD-ROM, two bonus DVDs on North American birds and wildlife, and a rugged backpack. The kit can be used for birding, wildlife spotting and stargazing.

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Toys in Motion: Science & Nature

TDmonthly Review:

What Is It?
This is the coolest, most transportable little scope around — good for terrestrial viewing, as well as skywatching. There’s a 70mm achromatic refractor, complete with alt/az tripod, two eyepieces (a 10mm and a 20 mm Kellner), a correct-image diagonal and an EZ Finder II. Everything fits into a backpack for easy transport, and there’s even a DVD version of the Starry Night software, which lets you play astronomer on the computer before nightfall (which my seven year old did constantly for a week straight).

What We Thought
One seven-year-old avid astronomy buff, one nine-year-old smart older brother, and I took this baby camping up at Sequoia National Monument (with a group led by a well-known nature photographer). 7000 feet up with clear skies, sitting in the middle of the sweetest alpine meadow anyone’s ever seen, we could only drool, waiting for darkness. In the group was a professional astronomer from UC Santa Cruz, who brought his expensive apo refractor, GoTo mount and CCD camera (we used this as a comparison with the GoScope 350). The kids couldn’t wait, so before complete blackness, we spotted the 1st quarter moon, and played around with the eyepieces. Score one for us, as the professional astronomer hadn’t even begun to put his scope on his mount yet. Come darkness, and we sighted on Jupiter. Sure, it looked color-perfect in the pro-scope, but we could see the Galilean moons no sweat, and I taught the kids how to find things with the scope themselves – a draw here with the professional. This was July 4th weekend, and mid-summer beautiful. The Sagittarius and Scorpius star clouds were in full bloom, and we were now gathering other kids from the group. All wanted to try their hand at the scope. Open clusters, globular clusters, the Trifid Nebula (M20). It was spectacular. Okay, it was even more spectacular in the bigger, much more costly pro scope with the computer-controlled mount, but no way would the astronomer let anyone mess too much with his scope. I let the kids go wild.

Why They’ll Want It
Hey, this is a beginner’s scope cum backpacker’s dream. There are small super-expensive options out there, but for kids, nothing beats this. Hands-on is hands-on, and this rugged little thing can take a bit of punishment. Plus, it comes in a backpack, so kids can go to their friends’ with it, take it to school, etc. It’s great for nature spotting, too. The Starry Night is pretty incredible, and this is too much fun to pass up.