What's a really good, not too expensive telescope to buy?

Question

I'm looking something up to $300 ...
If you can also give good references, and if you have it, why do you like it.

you will get best answered if you convence me

Answer 1

Hi. I am an amateur astronomer. Decide first what you plan to see and how REALLY committed you are to seeing it. Usually the best first step is a good pair of binoculars. 7x50 is a good start. In my opinion, if you decide to go with a telescope you get a lot of performance out of a 6" or 8" Dobsonian. If you want to go to a tracking scope, a fork mounted 6" or 8" works well. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

The previous respondant's recommendation to buy binoculars first is very sound advice.

Unless you know your way around the sky, a telescope could be a 5 minute wonder, as you get frustrated with trying to find things with it.

The fact is that you can get cheap telescopes with fairly good optics, but the expensive telescopes make it easier to find things, some of them having computerised finding where you just enter the co-ordinates of the object you want.

So, yes, there are good cheap telescopes but you need to know what you are doing, otherwise you will just get frustrated with it.

You really need to be committed to wanting to know about the sky. When you can walk out on a dark night and instantly recognise what's in the sky, then you are probably ready for a telescope. Otherwise, you are wasting time and money.

Answer 3

Here are a couple of good on line retailers. All of their offerings should be good, including the ones under $300.

Answer 4

A good pair of binoculars are far better than a cheap telescope, any astronomer worth his salt will tell you that.

Answer 5

meade, at Wal Mart

Answer 6

http://shopping.discovery.com/category-1_TELESCOPESBINOCULARS.html?jzid=40587878-14-0