Advice on buying your first telescope

Choosing the right telescope can be a daunting task, especially if it will be your first telescope. Your best bet is to avoid the temptation to go to a department store and play with the floor models, since you will probably walk away overpaying for a low quality refractor telescope that will frustrate you, especially when you try to use all of the poor quality included accessories.

Also, do not get caught up in the sales hype of 500x magnification telescopes. That will likely be of little value to you, especially since the majority of your viewing will likely take place in 100x-200x range.

You need to find a telescope that is optically high quality and mechanically solid.

Be sure that the mount that the telescope comes on is stable, when you touch the telescope or mount, the telescope should not wobble.

When you lock the telescope into a certain position, it should not move from that position.

The telescopes barrel should be made of metal or high quality cardboard; telescopes whose barrels are made out of plastic should be avoided.

Lenses and eyepieces should be made of glass and certainly not plastic, and there should be at least once eyepiece included as standard.

The telescope’s barrel should have a finder scope mounted on it, which is very useful for locating celestial objects before focusing on them with the telescope.

The aperture, or diameter, of the telescope’s primary lens or mirror is the most important factor in choosing a telescope; the larger the diameter of the primary lens or mirror of the telescope, the more light that the telescope will collect, resulting in a brighter and crisper image.

When purchasing your first telescope, a 70mm-90mm diameter is a good size for a refractor and a 6-8” mirror is a good size for a reflector.

You should buy the biggest telescope that you can afford and transport. Generally, you will store your telescope inside, and only bring it out when you want to use it, and if you purchase a reflector telescope that has over an 8” mirror, it is probably going to weigh more than 50lbs, so it is unlikely that you are going to bring it out very frequently.

You should expect to spend no less than $300 for your first telescope, and you might even want to budget a bit more