What telescopes are suitable for what kinds of observing?

Buying a small, inexpensive "beginner's" telescope to see what astronomy is like, before you move up to a "good" scope, is often a guarantee that you'll never buy a good scope. Most inexpensive "department store special" telescopes have dim and blurry plastic optics, with shaky and difficult-to-use mounts. They can easily get you so discouraged at not seeing anything fun that you'll give up on astronomy without ever knowing how many wonders can be seen with a truly good scope.

So be prepared to spend at least $250 to $500 for a telescope – more, if possible. Try to make your first purchase a quality telescope, even if you have to wait a while to buy it. You'll be happier with a well-made telescope – from your very first look and for many years to come. But even at these prices, with today's technology, you can get a fully computerized telescope that can take the guesswork out of astronomy – a scope that will find, identify, and track celestial objects for you automatically!

That being said, we are aware that some people have strict budget limits. Others are looking only for a small scope as a present for their child or grandchild, spouse, or significant other. They are not looking for a serious observing instrument, simply a somewhat grownup version of a toy telescope for an occasional peek at the Moon or planets from the patio on a warm summer's night. 

For these people, we do have scopes that are well under $250 in the 60mm to 4.5" aperture range that offer quite acceptable visual performance at very economical price points. They are fun for occasional casual peeks at the sky, but they do have their limitations. You will have to track down objects in the sky on your own, as you won't have a computer to do the finding for you, and they rarely have motor drives to follow the objects once you've found them. People usually enjoy astronomy more if their first scope is more than just a bare bones and undersized "starter" scope.

If $250-$500 is more than your budget allows now, and you're looking for a telescope for some serious star-gazing, consider joining an astronomy club. You can attend their star parties for occasional observing and possibly find a member who would welcome your company while observing. Very often the club will also have a "loaner" scope you can borrow while you save up for the scope you really want. Don't buy something that's less than you really want, just because it's in your price range now. If you do, sooner or later you'll want something better, and much of your present investment will go to waste if you can't sell the too-small scope you bought "just to get started."

As you start your search for the right telescope, give some thought to whether you only want to experience the skies with your own eyes, or whether you also want to photograph them so you can share with others the sights you've seen. Astrophotography usually requires an equatorial mount, motor drive, camera adapter, a DSLR camera or CCD imager – things that aren't needed for visual observing. So, if photography intrigues you, plan ahead. Choose a scope that you can use for photography later, even if it costs a little more now. It will be more cost-effective in the long run to pay a little bit more to get a photo-ready scope now, rather than have to buy a completely different scope later.

If you refer to the discussions on the following links about "Why Buy a Reflector . . . a Refractor . . . a Catadioptric," concerning the virtues and drawbacks of the different scope types, as well as to the charts in these sections, you can narrow down which telescope types are best suited to your specific requirements. For example, if your main interest is the planets, the Performance chart in the previous section, combined with the Purpose chart below, might lead you to conclude that either a 6" f/8 reflector, a 4" refractor, or a 3.5" catadioptric might be the most suitable for you optically. But – if you have to transport your scope from home to a distant site each night to observe, the catadioptric's greater portability might well be the most important consideration, as will be seen in the Portability and Light Pollution chart in the next section, "Where Can You Use the Scope You Choose."

PURPOSE – WHAT KINDS OF TELESCOPES ARE SUITABLE FOR WHAT KINDS OF OBSERVING?

Click on this "Where Can You Use the Scope You Choose"  link and we'll take you to the next step in choosing the right telescope for you.