We’ve found a go-to Black Friday telescope deal that is worth navigating to as fast as you can. The National Geographic 70 Computerized Refractor Telescope is on sale right now for $251.59 at Kohl’s. That’s more than $100 less than its usual price.
Go-to technology is a trending topic in astronomy, and this is one of the best Black Friday deals yet that we’ve seen advertised in this telescope category. Stock is sure to disappear fast as semiconductor chip shortages are affecting telescope supply, so make sure you get this deal quickly before you lose your way.
Go-to telescopes solve one of the largest challenges of amateur astronomy, which is learning your way around the sky. While having a map of the stars in your head is best practice, at times it is hard to situate yourself. That’s where the power of go-to technology comes in.
While we recommend the National Geographic 70 Computerized Refractor Telescope given its value and its incredible price point, we have some other guides for you to look at if you want to browse a bit before making the buy. Our Black Friday telescope deals page includes some go-to telescopes, and we also have more general telescope deals available from vendors including Celestron, Best Buy and Walmart.
These telescopes, which are becoming more affordable every year, allow you to use a computer to help guide you to the right target. Beginners use these telescopes to learn the basics, while more advanced astronomers appreciate the go-to for its ability to point to faint objects that are hard to spot on the first try.
At 70 mm, this telescope is a perfect budget entry for those new to astronomy. It will allow you to image bright objects like the planets, the moon and some of the larger galaxies, such as M31 (The Andromeda Galaxy). Alternatively, more advanced observers may want to consider this for a travel telescope, given that it weighs only 18 pounds (8 kg) and will fit in a moderately sized suitcase.
Your purchase will get you the telescope, a sturdy tripod, 2 high-quality Plossl eyepieces and a red-dot viewfinder that will make it easy to find objects in your viewing field. Planet and asteroid-hunting, for example, can be especially challenging when these objects are not visible to the naked-eye. The go-to technology will help you in locating these worlds of our solar system.
That said, given the supply chain shortages of 2021, this is an impressive deal that is going to rocket away quickly. Astronomy is a hot field these days due to its pandemic-friendly qualities, in that you hold events outdoors and keep folks at a distance from each other anyway. So why not share your love of the stars with this discount deal?
Be sure to check out Space.com’s Black Friday Space deals, or our guide to the Best telescopes of 2021.