Find a telescope in your price range. Pick the best one for you.
8.5
The Radian 75mm Petzval is a decent imaging refractor – though it’s little more than a rebadged copy of an identical and cheaper telescope.
9.5
Achieving a middle ground between portability and price, the Sky-Watcher 12” FlexTube Dobsonian is a good choice for those interested in a large and capable telescope without a premium price tag.
The Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi 130P is a fantastic beginner or “Grab n’ go” telescope, though we do recommend the larger 150P which only costs a bit more too. Those looking for a simpler or cheaper setup should consider the Heritage 130P or 150P which are identical to their Virtuoso GTi counterparts apart from the lack of GoTo.
Whether you use a DSLR or a cooled dedicated astronomy camera, the Sky-Watcher Esprit 100ED is a high-quality, compact, and capable telescope ideal for deep-sky astrophotography and a superb instrument for visual use as well.
7.5
The Explore Scientific ED80 Essentials Triplet is a poor choice for most astrophotography work compared to competing telescopes, and the scope’s triplet optical design has little correlation with high quality.
9
The Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED (formerly the ProED 80) is an excellent visual and astrophotography telescope, though not the fastest f/ratio or widest field option out there.
The William Optics ZenithStar 73 III is an ideal telescope for wide-field deep-sky astrophotographers, regardless of whether you’re a beginner or an experienced imager.
The William Optics ZenithStar 81 is a great telescope for beginner astrophotographers and provides excellent value for the money, though it’s a little more demanding than smaller aperture instruments and slower in focal ratio.
The William Optics ZenithStar 61 is a great starter telescope for deep-sky astrophotography and offers good value for the price.
The Celestron CPC 800 GPS is a rather bulky telescope for its aperture, but it’s packed with performance and versatility.
The Celestron CPC 925 GPS is a fairly versatile scope and is great if you don’t plan on doing much imaging.
The Celestron CPC 1100 GPS is an absolute monster of a telescope, and probably isn’t best as a beginner or “only” instrument – but boy, does it deliver.
We provide all the information necessary to buy a high-quality product confidently—even if it costs more than other models.
There are five planets visible to the naked eye, but one of those, Saturn, is too close to the Sun to be visible this month. Of the others, three are currently visible in the evening sky.
In spite of their complicated appearance, equatorial mounts really aren’t all that complicated nor are they much more difficult to use than an alt-azimuth mount.
Observing the Sun is one of few astronomy activities you can do in the daytime.
Observing the planets is probably the first thing you’re going to want to do with your telescope, as the planets are easy to find, bright, and visible regardless of light pollution conditions.
Astrophotography, unfortunately, is a bit of a money pit. Not only is the gear expensive, but the overall quality of your images and the versatility of your rig is pretty much directly proportional to how much you spend.
Almost any telescope needs a finder.
For astrophotography, an equatorial mount is critical to achieving accurate tracking for sharp, long-exposure images.
If you plan on looking through your telescope, eyepieces are pretty important.
Basically all telescopes ever made fall into three types.
Buying your first telescope can be confusing. This guide will lead you to the best model you can buy; for different price ranges.
Ursa Major, the Great Bear, is one of the most well-known constellations in the sky, and with good reason.
Two dimensional newtonian mechanics simulator.
This is a two dimensional simulation of the Solar System.
A tool for calculating your telescope’s magnification power.
These are approximately the images you will see from your telescope.
