Is the Celestron Cometron 60 a real Celestron telescope?

Yes. Celestron's Chinese website lists it as the Cometron 60, item S81616, and it arrives in a Celestron box. It is not in Celestron's UK or US range, and AliExpress lists it as the Celestron Eye 60.

Is the Cometron 60 a refractor or a reflector?

A reflector: a 60 mm Newtonian with a 240 mm focal length at f/4. The vanes holding its small mirror are visible in the open front of the tube.

What magnification does the Cometron 60 give?

24x, from the supplied 10 mm eyepiece and the 240 mm focal length.

Can I take photos through it with my phone?

Yes. The adjustable holder is built in and lines the phone up with the eyepiece; the Moon and the Pleiades on this page were taken that way.

Can I see Saturn's rings through the Cometron 60?

Not in a photograph. At the eyepiece I could have sworn I could just about see them, but my phone recorded only a bright dot.

Can I put the Cometron 60 on a star tracker?

Yes, by the female screw mount under the tube. I have not yet imaged through it on a tracker, but the pair could make a very tidy astrophotography setup for less than £100.

Where can I buy the Cometron 60, and what does it cost?

Through AliExpress, shipped from China; no UK or US retailer lists it. In October 2025 it was listed at US $29 plus US $14 shipping; today's price is not recorded.

What have I not tested on the Cometron 60?

I have not taken a tracked exposure through the Cometron 60, used any eyepiece but the supplied 10 mm, or weighed it.

Celestron Cometron 60 review: a tabletop reflector for your phone

Where does it rank on our leaderboard

Nine of the 42 telescopes on my board, against price
Rank	Telescope	Stars for Your Buck	Recorded UK price
1	Askar 50P	95 out of 100	£299
2	ToupTek Hope D60	93 out of 100	£749
5	Celestron 8" EdgeHD	90 out of 100	£1,999
17	Askar 80ED	77 out of 100	£379
21	Celestron Cometron 60	73 out of 100	£44
25	Askar 185APO	71 out of 100	£5,049
37	Starfield Optics 115 Triplet	52 out of 100	£1,899
41	Celestron 114 LCM	42 out of 100	£361
42	Celestron AstroMaster LT 76	13 out of 100	£200

Contents

01 Where does it rank on our leaderboard
02 Specifications and features
03 In the hand
04 From the review video
05 How good is it? Here's what I captured
06 The rig on the mount
07 What is it for
08 Watch the review
09 Should you buy it?
10 Questions and more about this review

In 30 seconds

Stars for Your Buck 73/100

Reviewed 31 Oct 2025 Updated 23 Sep 2026

Rank: #21 of 42 telescopes
Verdict: Worth a look

Written by Damon Scotting 3 min read

Buy it if

You want the cheapest real first look at the Moon, with a phone holder already built in.
You want a tiny tabletop telescope that screws onto its tripod and is ready in minutes.
You want a light tube with a screw mount to try on a small star tracker.

Skip it if

You want to see Saturn's rings: 24x is not enough magnification for them.
You want deep-sky photographs: it has no tracking mount.
You want to buy from a UK or US shop: it ships from China, with shipping on top.

It looks like the real deal, and the views of the Moon it delivered were very fitting of its price, but Saturn's rings are practically impossible to make out.

AliExpress $59 Ad

Specifications and features

Celestron Cometron 60 reviewed #21 of 42
Recorded UK price	£44
Aperture	60 mm
Focal length	240 mm
Focal ratio	f/4
Optical design	Newtonian reflector
Image circle	16 mm
Back focus	not recorded
Focuser	Helical
Weight	800 g
Length	not recorded
Mount	Tabletop tripod with a quick-lock ball head, 20 or 23 cm tall
Eyepieces supplied	10 mm (24x)
Dew shield	Not supplied
In the box	Tube with built-in phone holder, 10 mm eyepiece, tabletop tripod with ball head, lens cap, manuals

In the hand

The tube and phone holder

With its box

On its tabletop tripod at night

The open front and the vanes holding the small mirror

The Moon on my phone in the holder

Under the Moon

From the review video

Two frames from my video

The Pleiades on an untracked long exposure

Hunting for the Moon, with my cat

How good is it? Here's what I captured

Two targets

Moon, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra through the supplied 10 mm eyepiece

Integration: Unknown
Field: Unknown
Telescope: Celestron Cometron 60
Camera: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra through the supplied 10 mm eyepiece
Mount: Supplied tabletop tripod
Target: Moon
Type: Moon
Location: Bortle 6.8 (in my garden)

Pleiades (M45), Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra through the supplied 10 mm eyepiece

Integration: Unknown
Field: Unknown
Telescope: Celestron Cometron 60
Camera: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra through the supplied 10 mm eyepiece
Mount: Supplied tabletop tripod, untracked
Target: Pleiades (M45)
Type: Open star cluster
Location: Bortle 6.8 (in my garden)

The rig on the mount

On the TeSeek 11, then on six other mounts

What is it for

Three things it is for

A phone holder built in

Perhaps most impressive of all is the built-in adjustable phone holder. It is something I am yet to see on any other telescope model: you normally have to pay a bit more money for an accessory that does this.

Ready in minutes

Inside the box there is a very sturdy tripod, the telescope and several manuals. The telescope simply screws onto the tripod, and you are ready to start exploring the cosmos.

A better Moon than the phone alone

Phones have become synonymous with taking pictures of the Moon without a telescope, and the phone by itself can zoom in a long way. With this cheap telescope, those views improve significantly.

Watch the review

What YOU can SEE with a $28.50 Telescope... · published 31 October 2025 · 4:16 · Watch on YouTube · 13,108 views, 615 likes on 2 Oct 2026

Jump to

0:20 What arrives in the box
0:29 The built-in phone holder
0:43 Honest advertising images
1:03 Setting it up
1:17 Finding the Moon
1:57 The Moon through my phone
2:23 Hunting for Saturn
2:49 The Pleiades
3:15 On a star tracker
3:49 What it cost

Transcript of the review video 906 words · 11 chapters · searchable

Press a time stamp to play from there.

0:00 Intro

0:00 What can you see in our night sky with a $28 telescope? 0:04 In today's video, I'm going to be pointing this AliExpress telescope towards the moon, Saturn, and the Pleiades to see if one of the cheapest telescopes on the planet is worth the investment or just a piece of junk. 0:15 Let's find out. 0:15 I'm the telescope man and this is astronomical.

0:20 What arrives in the box

0:20 So, this is the latest Celestron Cometron telescope. 0:20 As you can tell from the packaging and included items, it looks like the real deal. 0:24 It comes with a sturdy tripod, a 60 mm mirror, and perhaps most impressive of all, a built-in adjustable phone holder.

0:29 The built-in phone holder

0:32 Now, this is something that I'm yet to see on any other telescope model before this. 0:35 You normally have to pay a bit more money to buy an accessory that allows you to do this. 0:38 So, at $28.50, I was willing to take the gamble. 0:42 The advertising images seem to be truthful enough and were actually surprisingly bang-on in terms of the example images you would expect to achieve.

0:43 Honest advertising images

0:49 None of these unrealistic expectations where company uses images taken by Hubble or computer-generated shots that just simply aren't achievable here on Earth. 0:55 At this price, I'm not expecting to see anything too far-fetched, but at least get a taste of the stargazing experience.

1:03 Setting it up

1:03 Inside the box, there was a very sturdy tripod, the telescope, and several manuals. 1:07 The default eyepiece is a 10 mm, which can be unscrewed and loosened to vary the focus achieved. 1:13 The telescope simply screws onto the tripod, and you're ready to start exploring the cosmos.

1:17 Finding the Moon

1:17 Given that tonight was an almost full moon, it makes sense to start things off by pointing the scope at the easiest and most straightforward target in our night sky. 1:24 I was struggling a fair bit trying to find the moon in my field of view. 1:27 And this wasn't helped at all by a certain orange Dumbo shaking the telescope with his immense presence. 1:35 Apparently, Tuloose was also keen to have a view of the moon. 1:35 Here's how it looked as seen by my Samsung S24 Ultra smartphone. 1:42 This phone comes with four different lenses, which is actually kind of inconvenient since it means I had to adjust a smartphone's positioning every time I transitioned between magnification levels. 1:50 Obviously, it was easiest to find a target at one time zoom, but then to image it, I was looking to use three or five time zoom.

1:57 The Moon through my phone

1:58 These phones have kind of become synonymous with being able to take pictures of the moon over the last few years without the aid of a telescope. 2:01 Just the phone by itself can zoom in enough to take views like this. 2:04 And I am delighted to say that with this cheap telescope, those views improve significantly. 2:12 My favourite time to observe the moon is around 50% illumination, this is when you get to see a lot of contrast and some huge shadows being cast across its many large craters. 2:18 Nevertheless, the views it delivered were very fitting of its price.

2:23 Hunting for Saturn

2:24 Now, however, the question was, can it image the gem of our solar system, Saturn, and capture its magnificent rings? 2:30 Well, after spending 10 minutes trying to find out, only to repeatedly find what I thought was the same star over and over again, I realized that this was the best view I was going to achieve of the gas giant. 2:41 It is practically impossible to make out its rings. 2:41 And yet, to the naked eye for a telescope, I could have sworn I could just about see them. 2:48 Okay, so disappointing when it comes to Saturn. 2:48 But what about everyone's favourite open star cluster, the seven sisters?

2:49 The Pleiades

2:53 Could this telescope reveal that there are in fact more than seven stars that make up the Pleiades star cluster? 2:57 Well, as it turns out, yes, just about. 3:02 I was trying desperately to take a long exposure image of the star cluster in the hopes of revealing a little bit of the hidden dust clouds that envelop these stars. 3:08 But unfortunately, it was impossible to do so without the trailing of stars caused by the rotation of our planet. 3:14 I actually think that this problem could be solved by the £69 TeSeek NanoTracker star tracker.

3:15 On a star tracker

3:19 I'll be posting another video about this to this channel very soon, so stay tuned. 3:23 But the important factor here is that the female screw mount of the telescope works really well with the TeSeek NanoTracker and it's more than light enough to track smoothly. 3:32 This could potentially be a very tidy astrophotography setup for less than £100. 3:39 So maybe I'll give this a shot in the future and make a video about it. 3:42 Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing that in the comments down below. 3:44 Also, let me know what you thought of the Celestron Cometron 60. 3:48 How much would you value it at? 3:48 To be completely honest about the pricing, I did in fact pay $28.50 for the scope, but there was a $13.80 shipping charge for it to arrive from China.

3:49 What it cost

3:56 So certainly something to be aware of depending on how super strict your own budget is. 4:00 I've attached a link to the telescopes and the mount in the description down below. 4:04 Thank you very much for watching and make sure you are subscribed for future videos. 4:07 I'm the telescope man and this was Astronomical.

Should you buy it?

73/100 Stars for Your Buck

Pros

“It comes with a sturdy tripod, a 60 mm mirror and, perhaps most impressive of all, a built-in adjustable phone holder.”
The advertising images are truthful: surprisingly bang-on for what you can expect to see.
“The default eyepiece is a 10 mm, which can be unscrewed and loosened to vary the focus achieved.”
“The female screw mount of the telescope works really well with the TeSeek NanoTracker, and it is more than light enough to track smoothly.”

Cons

Finding targets is a struggle: I had trouble getting even the Moon into the field of view, and there is no finder in the box.
After ten minutes of searching for Saturn, a bright dot was the best view I could get.
Without tracking, a long exposure of the stars trails with the rotation of our planet.
With a multi-lens phone, the holder has to be repositioned every time you change magnification.

At this price, I am not expecting to see anything too far-fetched, but at least get a taste of the stargazing experience.

Who the Cometron 60 is for

Curious first-timer on a tiny budget

Buy

The Cometron 60 gives a real taste of stargazing: the whole Moon with its large craters at 24x, on a tabletop in minutes.

Phone photographer after a better Moon

Buy

The holder is already on the tube, so there is no adapter to buy, and my phone's Moon through the eyepiece beat its own zoom.

Planet watcher who wants Saturn's rings

Skip

My recommendation is the Celestron C5, a 127 mm tube with 1,250 mm of focal length that really surprised me on the planets.

Beginner astrophotographer

Skip

My recommendation is the Seestar S30, a smart telescope with its own camera and tracking mount.

Buyer ready to spend a few hundred

Skip

Go for something above 4 inches, and buy it used: you can get twice the telescope for a third of the price.

Deep-sky observer

Skip

It just about shows more than seven stars in the Pleiades; fainter nebulae and galaxies want a bigger mirror.

Three alternatives I have reviewed

Questions and more about this review

Reviewed by

Damon Scotting

The Telescope Man Verified

BSc (Hons) Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology, Loughborough University PGCE / QTS, University of Nottingham

About Damon About Damon Damon Scotting is The Telescope Man. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology from Loughborough University and a PGCE with QTS from the University of Nottingham, and taught physics in secondary schools before becoming an astronomy creator. He is a contributing writer for BBC Sky at Night Magazine and the author of 42 Wonders of Our Night Sky, and his photograph of the galaxy M100 with the dwarf planet Ceres was Highly Commended in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 competition run by Royal Observatory Greenwich. He has appeared on the BBC's Blue Peter. More than 750,000 people follow his astronomy channels on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and he has reviewed more than 140 telescopes, mounts, cameras, filters and accessories hands-on for this site. More about Damon · How I test · Damon's book

I review all kinds of gear: most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way. How this site is funded

Eight questions, answered

Questions about the Celestron Cometron 60

Reviewed 31 October 2025 ·Updated 23 September 2026

I review all kinds of gear. Most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way: no company sees or approves a review before it is published. Shop links marked Ad are affiliate links: I earn a commission when you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. How this site is funded

Is the Celestron Cometron 60 a real Celestron telescope? Yes. Celestron's Chinese website lists it as the Cometron 60, item S81616, and it arrives in a Celestron box. It is not in Celestron's UK or US range, and AliExpress lists it as the Celestron Eye 60. In the hand ↓
Is the Cometron 60 a refractor or a reflector? A reflector: a 60 mm Newtonian with a 240 mm focal length at f/4. The vanes holding its small mirror are visible in the open front of the tube. In the hand ↓
What magnification does the Cometron 60 give? 24x, from the supplied 10 mm eyepiece and the 240 mm focal length. The specifications ↓
Can I take photos through it with my phone? Yes. The adjustable holder is built in and lines the phone up with the eyepiece; the Moon and the Pleiades on this page were taken that way. What I captured ↓
Can I see Saturn's rings through the Cometron 60? Not in a photograph. At the eyepiece I could have sworn I could just about see them, but my phone recorded only a bright dot. Watch the review ↓
Can I put the Cometron 60 on a star tracker? Yes, by the female screw mount under the tube. I have not yet imaged through it on a tracker, but the pair could make a very tidy astrophotography setup for less than £100. Watch the review ↓
Where can I buy the Cometron 60, and what does it cost? Through AliExpress, shipped from China; no UK or US retailer lists it. In October 2025 it was listed at US $29 plus US $14 shipping; today's price is not recorded. The verdict, the readers and the sellers ↓
What have I not tested on the Cometron 60? I have not taken a tracked exposure through the Cometron 60, used any eyepiece but the supplied 10 mm, or weighed it.