How To Choose a Telescope

Choosing Your Telescope

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Choosing a scope can seem complicated, but lets try keep it simple.

• Set a budget. This narrows it down a lot. Theres no point worrying about designs and specs of scopes that aren’t within budget.
• Who is it for? If they are under 10, you are going to have to chip in with a good bit of help, and it has to be easy to use. If they need portability, this must be considered too. Are they beginners or more advanced. Will they want to do astrophotography, or just observing. All these things must be considered.

 

As a general rule, keeping it simple pays off. If the telescope is difficult to use, it wont be used.

For the younger crowd, under say 15, try get a telescope on an Alt-Az mount, it will generally have AZ in the title. These are easy to use and set up. The number in the name is the size, the bigger the better in general.

 

Celestron came out with a great range of scopes for beginners called Starsense Explorer. They use an app to tell you where to point the scope after you choose an object. Arrows come up omn the screen to guide you. Super easy to set up, and super easy to use. We use this Starsense Explorer LT70AZ at home, and my 13 year old has been able to use it on his own since he was 11. 

 

 

 

 

 

Also Consider these ones –

 

 

 

 

 

 

If it doesnt have to be a tripod mounted telescope, you can great value and "bang for buck" with a dobsonian, in particular the Skywatcher Heritage Range.

 

Popular models include:

 

 

If the budget is nearer the €500 up to say the €1000 mark, you can consider one of the goto scopes, operated from either a handcontrol, or an app on your phone, such as Celestron Sky Portal, or Skywatcher Synscan. All of these telescopes will need to be aligned with a few bright stars each night you use it.

Consider these ones:

 

 

Above the €1000 mark, you can start getting into some decent sized scopes, again, pretty easy to use like the ones above, you are basically getting bigger size. Popular higher end telescopes are:

 

 

 

Planetary photography is easily done with any of the motorised telescopes above, all you need is a planetary camera, such as a ZWO ASI Camera.

 

If you want to delve into proper deep sky astrophotography, objects such as Nebulae, Galaxies, Star Clusters etc, then ideally, you need an Equatorial Goto Mount, coupled with a suitable telescope, based on the targets you wish to image.

 

But as a guide, entry level, this is where its at -

 

Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTi

 

 

 

 

And then larger mounts equal larger scopes and payload, such as:

 

 

But realistically, if you wish to do astrophotography, its best to Contact Us to discuss, as it very easy to get the wrong gear!

 

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