what is the best brand of telescope for star gazing?

Question

I also want it to be affordable.

Answer 1

A word of caution on brand names. Meade and Celestron, though they make some very good telescopes, sell some real dogs in the lower price ranges. If you're looking for an inexpensive (under $500) scope, Orion (telescope.com) generally does better.

Answer 2

Most stars aren't particularly impressive in a telescope when viewed by themselves. If it's stars you want to see, then you'll want something that can see large swaths of sky.

Binoculars, about 7x50's are good for this. Just be sure you buy high quality ones and not the compact ones with the red lenses.

Realistically you probably won't find a decent telescope for less than $150 used. I recommend a reflector no smaller than 4.5" in diameter, though I think a 6" or 8" would be more ideal. The cheapest telescope for it's size is the Dobsonian. Orion makes very good ones. Celestron and Meade are also good brands with affordable telescopes.

Don't but anything from a department store and don't buy refractors or any other type of telescope that says things like "900X power!" Bushnell and Tasco are famous for marketing low quality telescopes under misleading pretenses. For the most part, the pictures on the boxes are not what you actually see.

A 4.5" Newtonian Reflector made by Celestron or Meade or any other "diffraction limited" brand will allow you to just make out the bands on Jupiter and sometimes the icecap on Mars. You will be able to see the ring Saturn, the Adromeda Galaxy, bright nebula such as the Ring Nebula and the Orion Nebula, and star clusters. And of course, the moon and sunspots (use a solar filter!).

The larger the diameter of the telescope the more light it can collect. The smaller the number in the denominator of the f ratio (f/4.5 for example) the brighter objects will appear and the wider the field of view will be BUT it will be more difficult to focus and the edges of the field of view will be more distorted.

You can find used telescopes on www.astromart.com under the classifieds but for your purposes eBay might due.

Be sure to get a good 25mm eyepeice and a 2x barlow too.

Answer 3

A good source is to start with a local museum, university, or especially planetarium. They have good resources for those interested in starting star gazing and some even offer talks on telescope purchasing at various points during the year, most often near the winter holidays.

Look around and shop smart and you'll find something that will last quite a while and share many beautiful star filled nights.
One thing you will learn is that while you can stay on a budget purchasing a telescope, it is wise not to be cheap. Major brands such as Orion are reliable ( I think I have a Celestron). Sky and telescope magazine, www.skyandtelescope.com is also a good source for info.

Binoculars are also wonderful, in some ways I prefer them because they are much easier to control and need little experience to find things with. They are also more portable. They aren't as good for certain kinds of observing and they do have limited light gathering but a really good set (which will also cost a fair amount of money) is simply wonderful. I've actually used my binoculars more than my telescope this year.

Answer 4

at first i does not advise any telescope for alien craft recognizing. once you think of roughly how in all probability it is to work out a alien craft with the bare eye, and then evaluate the very small field of view in a telescope, it particularly is the final element i'd use. At 11 years outdated - that's an identical age that i became as quickly as I first have been given the astronomy malicious program - a solid pair of binoculars stands out as the ideal first telescope. I had a marginally crude 40mm terrestrial refractor on a thoroughly ineffective mount. a technique or the different I controlled to work out the craters of the Moon with it! you do no longer say the place you reside yet once you're interior the united kingdom, then first mild Optics, Scopes and Skies, Altair Astro or Telescope residing house could have the means to advise you on the acquisition of a solid high quality telescope ideal for a youthful beginner. What i'd say is that a solid high quality telescope for astronomy is going to be critically greater high priced than the binoculars. So if there is any doubt approximately his long term interest, the binoculars stands out as the greater helpful guess finiancially and that they'd a minimum of be used for different issues as nicely. i take advantage of a pair of 15x70s that are remarkable and value only approximately £50.

Answer 5

Meade scopes are very good. Unfortunately, they start at around $700, including the necessary accessories, like tracking/finding motors, a computer interface, and a good tripod. If you don't want to spend that much, don't waste your money on a telescope. You will get much more use out of a good pair of 10 x 25 binoculars ($100).

Answer 6

Binoculars

Answer 7

#1 -- Celestron, Inc
#2 -- Meade Instruments

Answer 8

If your just starting out, Orion is a good choice.

http://www.telescope.com