What telescope should I buy?
When someone asks me “what telescope should I buy, my budget is “X,” I usually ask questions to try to get a feel for what type of stargazer that person will end up being. Are they interested in just the Moon and planets? Or, are they looking to see galaxies and nebula from darks skies? Do they need something portable? Can they carry a large telescope or do they need something of a more manageable size?
Then, given their answers, I’ll try to match a telescope to their criteria based loosely on the chart below. I’ll also match every telescope against my personal list of minimum requirements, as follows:
Does the telescope have at least 4 inches of aperture (about 100mm)?
Does the telescope come with a red-dot or bullseye finder? (no finderscopes!)
Can the telescope’s mount move effortlessly left-right, and up-down and attach to the telescope with a vixen style dovetail? (No EQ mounts for beginners.)
Can the telescope balance precisely on the mount and stay fixed in place when released? (no camera tripods or yoke & rod mounts)
Can the telescope point straight up, and if it’s a refractor, does it include a 90-degree diagonal?
Note that your budget may require a slight stretch to meet these minimum requirements. If you email me asking about a telescope that is not on this list, there is a 99% chance it fails one of the above tests and I will not recommend it.
The telescopes in our “Telescope Buying Guide” are for visual observing only. I consider astrophotography a very different hobby, with very different requirements. A telescope’s ability to hold a camera has zero weight on my decision to recommend a beginner telescope for stargazing. I do have recommended gear for astrophotography, and that can be found in our “Astrophotography” buying guide.
Note:
As we move past $500, I’m trying to choose telescopes that accept 2 inch diameter eyepieces.
For non-go-to telescopes for deep-sky viewing, this chart generally follows the: “get the largest Dobsonian you can afford” rule.
Mak telescopes provide wonderful views, but their high focal lengths make viewing large star clusters challenging. Finding deep-sky objects at high magnification is often a challenge with these telescopes when not connected to a go-to system. That’s why I’ve largely restricted this class of telescope to the first column. However, because these telescopes are quite compact, I often recommend them as portable telescopes.
Some Dobsonian telescopes have finderscopes instead of bullseye finders like Telrads or Rigel Quikfinders. If you get a Dobsonian with a finderscope, you’ll probably want to upgrade to a bullseye finder. This will make finding targets much easier.
The largest factor in determining how many deep-sky objects you will be able to observe is the darkness of your skies, not your telescope. However, based on subjective analysis, I’ve found that refractors tend to perform better under light polluted skies, compared with reflectors of similar aperture.