5 Best Telescopes for Kids
Want to give them the moon? These beginner telescopes are good for the whole family.
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Children love looking up at the stars and imagining distant galaxies, but with just their eyes, they can only see so much. Telescopes for kids can help them explore stars and planets, stimulating their imagination and firing their curiosity.
Telescopes work by using a lens or curved mirror to gather and focus light from the sky so you can see the stars and planets more clearly. The ability to collect light is related to the diameter of the lens or mirror (a.k.a aperture); the larger the aperture, the more detail you can see.
Having trouble choosing the best telescope to buy? Our Good Housekeeping Institute pros evaluated them and chose top-tested brands, telescopes with innovative features and products with rave online reviews for this list while keeping everything budget-friendly.
Celestron 70mm Travel Scope
Pros
- Reasonable price
- Clear images of the moon or wildlife
- Includes tripod and bag
Cons
- Reviewers say "flimsy" tripod can lead to some wobble
Aperture: 70mm | Weight: 4.2 lbs | Ages: No age rating, we suggest 5+ with help
Celestron makes many highly rated telescopes. This model, on the lower end for power and price, has more than 9,000 five-star Amazon reviews for being easy to set up and use, and for how it captures clear images of the moon above and wildlife, such as birds, on earth. Just remember that an image in a refractor telescope is upside-down, which might be funny if your family is using it to look at animals!
This has a 70mm aperture and comes with two eye pieces (20mm and 10mm) to see celestial objects more clearly. A tripod that can stretch to 52 inches tall and carrying bag are also included for easy toting on a camping trip or other adventure.
Online reviewers call the tripod is "flimsy" and say that if your kid bumps it while trying to look through the telescope, you can expect some wobble. If your family is committed to making stargazing a habit and you're willing to spend more in the $300 range, Celestron has a 102mm AstroMaster that gets better reviews for stability as well as clarity.
Pros
- Under $40
- Easy-to-understand instructions
- Uncomplicated design
Cons
- Smaller aperture makes this less powerful
Aperture: 40mm | Weight: 2.2 lbs | Ages: 5+ with help
This pick is less than $40 and has an uncomplicated design. The 40mm aperture helps kids see the sky more clearly, or lets them zoom in on animals or birds on earth, but it's the least powerful on our list.
Reviewers say this is the “perfect beginner telescope” with fairly clear instructions, making it easy to use. The short tripod has to sit on a tabletop. You can set it up on a picnic table, for instance. It includes a moon mirror to help reduce glare when viewing the moon, plus a built-in compass to analyze the stars more easily.
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Educational Insights Nancy B's Science Club MoonScope
Pros
- Educational booklet included
- Made for kids ages 8 and up to use themselves
- Lightweight at just 1 pound
Cons
- Might feel too kiddie to some
Aperture: 45 mm | Weight: 1 lb | Ages: 8+
If your kid wants to operate it all on their own, this is for them. It's a telescope that kids ages 8 and up can use themselves, a real working model designed to help them see the moon with a filter that reduces glare, plus extras like 18x and 90x magnifications and a finder scope. In our testing, parents loved that this includes a 22-page booklet and journal to get children engaged.
This is pink and green, so it kind of looks like a toy. Teens might not want the Nancy B, but the same manufacturer, Educational Insights, is releasing a more streamlined looking Starview Telescope that's currently on preorder. We look forward to trying that one with kids when it's released.
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Gskyer AZ Astronomical Refractor Telescope
Pros
- Step up in power for bigger kids
- Phone adaptor for snapping images of magnified objects
- More than 14,000 five-star reviews on Amazon
Cons
- Heaviest and priciest on our list
Aperture: 90mm | Weight: 18 lbs | Ages: No age rating, we suggest 10+ with help
This could light a fire in an astronomy-minded older kid. Teens or preteens who are ready to take a step up in power and precision may appreciate this one with a 90mm aperture. It's got a smart phone adaptor that lets you take photos with your phone of a magnified object with the help of a remote-control shutter-release button so you don't get a shaky picture.
It's heavy, but that helps it hold still. This has more than 14,000 five-star reviews on Amazon. The tripod can stretch up to 49 inches tall. It's the largest and heaviest on our list, but reviewers praise its "solid quality."
Educational Insights GeoSafari Jr. Talking Space Explorer
Pros
- For young space fans ages 4+ to play with
- Talking telescope teaches hundreds of facts
- Beautiful images and videos
Cons
- Just a toy, not a real working telescope
Aperture: N/A | Weight: 1.5 lbs | Ages: 4+
Help little kids learn about space with this toy. This is for preschoolers ages 4 and up who want to learn facts about space right now, are asleep by nighttime and who honestly might be less impressed with viewing the real moon than a slide about the moon at their young age.
Expect more than 100 images and videos, many from NASA, plus a couple of hundred facts. Your child can even quiz themselves if they want. The brand has a similar talking microscope that is a bestseller on our list of the best gifts for kids. Requires 3 AA batteries
How we chose the best kids telescopes
The parents and pros at the Good Housekeeping Institute understand that most families are not looking to spend more than $500 on a telescope for kids ages 6, 7 or even 10, so we narrowed our search to five affordable options.
We first chose telescopes we've tested with kids and parents, which tend toward the toy-like ones. The more sophisticated picks on our list are from credible brands that we trust that have had telescopes out for at least five years, garnering positive online reviews from families nationwide.
What to look for when shopping for kids' telescope
Telescopes are available in three types:
✔️ Refractor telescopes are the most common type of telescope for kids and the most affordable. A long tube attached to a lens magnifies objects in the sky or on the ground.
✔️ Reflector telescopes use a curved mirror instead of a lens for greater clarity and quality with clearer views of the sky than refractor telescopes, but cannot be used to magnify objects on earth.
✔️ Compound telescopes combine the best of both refractor and reflector telescopes as they have both lenses and mirrors to see clearly images in space and earth side. These cost thousands of dollars and are not suitable for children.
All of our picks are refractor telescopes. Those are best for affordable home use for families. The images you see in a refractor telescope are upside-down, unless there's a mirror inside to correct it. That's normal and not a product defect!
For teenagers or youth ready to study astronomy, NASA publishes a detailed guide to the current night sky that helps them understand what stars and planets are out on any given night.
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
For more than a century the Good Housekeeping Institute has evaluated and recommended products for families. We test many projects in our Labs and in consumer homes.
Contributing Writer Jessica Hartshorn, a mom of two, wrote the most recent version of this article. She was previously at Parents magazine and now helps GH cover products for kids and parents, and is a judge for the Best Toy Awards and the Parenting Awards. Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab Associate Director Emma Seymour, a graduate of Cornell University, did additional research for this story.
Emma Seymour (she/her) is the associate director of the Good Housekeeping Institute's Textiles, Paper and Apparel Lab, where she has led testing for luggage, pillows, towels, tampons and more since 2018. She graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor of science in fiber science and apparel design and a minor in gerontology, completing research in the Body Scanner Lab on optimizing activewear for athletic performance.
Jessica (she/her) is a freelance writer with several decades of experience writing lifestyle content and evaluating home and parenting products. A mom of two teens and two cats, her previous work can be seen in American Baby and Parents.
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