Choosing a Telescope for Beginners

Choosing a telescope can be confusing especially if you don't really know much about telescopes and astronomy but you find yourself choosing a telescope as a Christmas or Birthday present as a gift for a family member.

There are so many models to choose from which all have their pros and cons and unfortunately there is a lot of garbage on the market too. Lets cut through the confusion and down to the guts of what you need to know.

Whether you are buying for yourself or for someone else the first thing to get into your head is the fact that all those beautiful pictures you have ever seen of colourful planets and nebula are not going to be replicated through the telescope you are buying. Not unless you're buying a share in the Hubble Telescope anyway. Confusingly, those pictures are often reproduced on the boxes telescopes are packed in, this is marketing gone mad!

You should first have a good think about how the telescope is likely to be used as well as your budget. This is actually quite crucial for a few reasons:

• A small telescope which is simple to set-up and easy to carry is likely to be used more often unless the user is particularly keen
• A large telescope allows more to be seen but the greater the size the more weight to carry and set-up
• In or near a city, a small refractor might be a better choice than a larger scope as they handle light pollution better than larger scopes
• Away from cities a large reflector can produce sights to knock your socks off and the Dobsonian versions are dead easy to use
• A refractor can also be used for some terrestrial viewing too, though you will likely need to correct the image to show right way up

Remember that all other things being equal the aperture of the telescope is the most important factor in what can be achieved in terms of views. The bigger the better as long as you can handle the scope and you are not capturing all the light pollution near a city.

So taking the above into account:

If you based near the city and unlikely to take your new telescope to the countryside, I would recommend a refractor. Get one of at least 70mm aperture but preferably more.They're easy to grab and set up on a whim.

My Refractor Pick: The Celestron Astromaster 90EQ See it Below

If on the other hand the new telescope is likely to only be used away from light pollution and by a keen user, I'd opt for the biggest reflector I could afford. They come into their own in good dark sky locations.

My Reflector Pick: The Orion Spaceprobe 130EQ See it Below

Bear in mind the big Dobsonian telescopes are actually reflectors mounted on simple turntables - ideal for younger viewers.

My Big Dob Pick: The Sky-Watcher 8 inch Collapsible Dob See it Below

Just about all but the cheapest telescopes can be 'accessoried' with motorised mounts, go-to systems and there are any number of eyepeieces and filters that can be purchased for the budding astronomer. A decent dealer will be able to recommend suitable ones for your choice of telescope.