Top 5 Best Telescope For Stargazing - Voted Best Of 2023
It is a popular gift, especially so during the holidays. It can be a portal to the universe and provide a lifetime of enjoyment. Therefore, we’ve listed the number of high-quality telescopes that will help you choose the suitable one.
By, Letha Kutch
Best astrophotography telescope:
Celestron Inspire 100AZ Refractor Smartphone Adapter Built-In Refracting Telescope, Blue (22403)
Best Telescopes for enthusiasts:
Celestron - PowerSeeker 127EQ Telescope - Manual German Equatorial Telescope for Beginners - Compact and Portable - Bonus Astronomy Software Package - 127mm Aperture
Beginner telescopes:
Telescope 114AZ Newtonian Reflector Telescope for Astronomy Adults, Great Astronomy Gift for Kids Adults, Comes with Cellphone Adapter & 1.25 Inch 13% T Moon Filter
- 【Powerful Reflector Telescope】The 114mm Newtonian Telescope is a powerful and entry-level reflector telescope, which is specially designed for astronomy beginners and amateurs to explore mysterious space.
- 【Reliable Service】We are committed to providing customers with high-quality and affordable astronomical telescopes. If you have any question about product and service, please feel free to contact us, we will do our best to help you in 24 hours.
- 【High-Quality Optics】The heart of the system is a fully-coated 114mm primary mirror. All glass optical components with high transmission coatings for enhanced image brightness and clarity. K10mm and K20mm eyepieces allow the telescope capture a magnification from low to high, meet all your need.
The Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 114 can be enjoyed by intermediate skywatchers, especially those who want to spend less time setting up and more time observing.
Built into this reflector is Celestron’s StarSense technology, which provides an easy option for aligning the telescope and enables the onboard GoTo system to work out which direction the instrument is pointing. To use the tech, all the skywatcher needs to do is download the StarSense app and take a smartphone image through the eyepiece and the app works out which stars are in the telescope's field of view to calculate the astronomer's orientation.
Moving to Jupiter, we made use of the 10 mm eyepiece to view the gas giant. Views are clear, but you'll need a selection of eyepieces and filters in order to pick out the coloration of the atmospheric bands. The planet's largest moons are visible as clear, sharp points of light. Views of the moon, Venus, and the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44) are also pleasing, with good clarity.
The beauty of the Celestron StarSense series is that you can read up on the literature offered by the app for each target you observe. Slewing from one target to another, we found that the StarSense Explorer LT 114 is a sturdy piece of kit and operates smoothly. One minor drawback is that skywatchers need to manually push the telescope as a motorized mount is not supplied.
With a fair-sized aperture and quality optics typical of Celestron products, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a beginner's telescope as good and easy to use for the same price.
Pros:
- Simple to set up and align
- Good intro to astrophotography
- Suggests targets to observe
Cons:
- Lacks computerized mount
Best Telescopes for the money:
Celestron - 70mm Travel Scope - Portable Refractor Telescope - Fully-Coated Glass Optics - Ideal Telescope for Beginners - BONUS Astronomy Software Package
- Large 70mm objective lens: Our refractor telescope is equipped with a large 70mm aperture objective lens that provides enhanced, brighter views compared to the 50mm model while adding very little additional weight. Setting up and using the Travel Scope is quick and easy.
- Powerful eyepieces for up-close viewing: Our telescope for astronomy beginners is equipped with two high-quality eyepieces (20mm and 10mm) that provide low- and high-power views of celestial objects at night and terrestrial objects during the day.
- Unbeatable warranty and customer support: Buy with confidence from the telescope brand, based in California since 1960. You’ll also receive a 2-year warranty and unlimited access to technical support from our team of US-based experts.
This little refractor is simple to get up and run in minutes. It’s a basic model, but that works in its favor for new backyard astronomers because it requires very little construction. At 70mm – less than 3 inches – this is the smallest aperture telescope on our list. Which means it collects less light than the others, so you’ll be limited on what you can see and how much magnification you can use.
However, if you’ve never looked through a telescope before, you’ll still be thrilled with your first views of solar system bodies like the moon, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. Just don’t expect to see fainter objects like galaxies and nebulae. They are 20mm and 10mm and will provide magnification of 45x and 90x respectively, which is just fine for a scope of this size.
Overall, if you just want to try out astronomy and don’t want to spend loads of money doing it, then this is just about the cheapest option.
Pros:
- Very cheap telescope
- Simple to set up
- Light and easy to move
Cons:
- Very small aperture
- Vibrating mount
- Limited to brightest objects
Buying Guide For The Best Telescope
To find a suitable telescope, it’s important to consider your purposes. In this buying guide, we will target some following characteristics.
Aperture
It is the diameter of its light-gathering lens or mirror, often called the objective. Look for the telescope's specifications near its focuser, at the front of the tube, or on the box. The aperture's diameter (D) will be expressed either in millimeters or, less commonly, in inches (1 inch equals 25.4 mm). As a rule of thumb, your telescope should have at least 2.8 inches (70 mm) aperture - and preferably more.
A larger aperture lets you see fainter objects and finer detail than a smaller one can. But a good small scope can still show you plenty — especially if you live far from city lights. For example, from a dark location, you can spot dozens of galaxies beyond our own Milky Way through a scope with an aperture of 80 mm (3.1 inches). But you'd probably need a 6- or 8-inch telescope (like the one shown at right) to see those same galaxies from a typical suburban backyard. And regardless of how bright or dark your skies are, the view through a telescope with plenty of apertures is more impressive than the view of the same object through a smaller scope.
Avoid telescopes that are advertised by their magnification — especially implausibly high powers like 600×. For most purposes, a telescope's maximum useful magnification is 50 times its aperture in inches (or twice its aperture in millimeters). So you'd need a 12-inch-wide scope to get a decent image at 600×. And even then, you'd need to wait for a night when the observing conditions are perfect.
Mount
Many telescopes come conveniently packaged with tripods or mounts, though the tubes of some smaller scopes often just have a mounting block that allows them to be attached to a standard photo tripod with a single screw. (Caution: A tripod that's good enough for taking your family snapshots may not be steady enough for astronomy.) Mounts designed specifically for telescopes usually forgo the single-screw attachment blocks in favor of larger, more robust rings or plates.
On some mounts the scope swings left and right, up and down, just as it would on a photo tripod; these are known as altitude-azimuth (or simply alt-az) mounts. Many reflectors come on an elegantly simple wooden platform, known as a Dobsonian, that's a variation of the alt-az mount. A more involved mechanism, designed to track the motion of the stars by turning on a single axis, is termed an equatorial mount. These tend to be larger and heavier than alt-az designs; to use an equatorial mount properly you'll also need to align it to Polaris, the North Star.
Conclusion
Any telescope can literally open your eyes to a universe of celestial delights. With a little care in selecting the right type of telescope for you, you'll be ready for a lifetime of exploring the night sky. Before buying any kind of telescope, don’t forget to look through this article. We have provided a complete guide and all necessary information to help you get the suitable one.
By, Letha Kutch
