Want to know about entry-level telescopes?

Question

I'd like to buy a telescope and be able to search the night time sky in summer. But the specs for telescopes confuse me. It will be my first purchase, yet I'd like to buy a good telescope for around 300-400 dollars. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Things to look for:

Size of the objective, which is the main mirror or lens. Bigger is better. I recently upgraded from a 6 inch to an 8 inch. Reflectors are cheaper than the same size refractor, so you probably want to look for a reflector if you only have a limited budget.

High optical quality. This can be hard to judge from advertising, they all claim to be high quality.

A sturdy mount. Nothing is worse than a shaky, loose mount. The simplest and cheapest mount is a Dobsonian, which provides simple up-down and right-left motions. More expensive and harder for a beginner to use is an equatorial mount, which had RA and Dec motions. Most expensive of all is a new computerized mount. That will break your budget unless you get a really small one.

Thing NOT to look for:

Magnification. Run away from any telescope that lists magnification as a main selling point, especially if it is high, like 500x or whatever. Any telescope can be made to magnify a lot with a short enough focal length eyepiece, but any magnification more than about 50 per inch of objective diameter is too much, resulting in a dim, blurry, shaky (although large) image. For a 6 inch, that upper limit is 300x. The best views of Saturn with my 6 inch were all at 200x, and I frequently used only 100x. I have seen 3 inch telescopes advertised as 600 power, which is shameful, since you could never really use such high magnification with such a small telescope.

See the sources for good quality telescopes.

Answer 2

Before you purchase a telescope you should learn a little more about them and the different types of telescopes.

One of the most important aspects of a telescope is it's aperture.
Aperture means the diameter of the telescope's mirror if it's a reflector, and lens if it's a refractor. The more aperture a telescope has, the more light it will collect and the more you will be able to see.

Here is a website that explains a little about telescopes, how they work, and the different types. It's short, to the point, and has pictures.

http://hometown.aol.com/siriusbc/telescopes.htm

Answer 3

Another question to ask yourself would be, do you really want a telescope? Often binoculars are good enough, heck, even a basic star chart can satisfy many people. I guess it all depends on what you are after, but if learning about stars, constellations, and planets is your goal, starting more simple might be a good solution. I can tell you that $400 spent on a telescope isnt going to get you much. The Celestron SkyScout is an awesome tool, but it is pricey if you dont plan to go the telescope route.

Answer 4

Try a 4.5 inch Meade - that was my first telescope. I think it was $400 at the time (15 years ago). But it depends on what you want to see. That will let you see planets (rings and moons), double stars, close-by galaxies, and globular clusters. If you want to see further-away galaxies and more detail, you'll need a bigger primary mirror.

Answer 5

Look for a cheap or second hand refractor, or failing that a powerful set of binoculars.

Answer 6

yes