Telescope Recommendations

[Mack41]

What’s the best all round telescope I can get for around the £500 mark ?
There’s so much choice out there

[KathyNS]

You will get the most telescope for the least money with a 6" or 8" Dobsonian. There are several brands and models out there, and most of them are good.

[EAGLE 5]

I agree most would consider a 6" to 8" newtonian as being the best "all around" for that price, generally speaking.

It wouldn't hurt to take a bit of time to look into small refractors to see if that is a route that interests you. There are a few apos, either new or used that may also be within your reach.

[hineas]

I have two answers: a short answer and a long answer. I will give both.

Short answer: I agree with KathyNS, get an 8" Dobsonian. This seems to be the sweet spot for ease of setup, weight, portability, and light gathering capabilities.

Now for the long answer:

It really depends on what you want to do. Are you going to be spending your time on objects in our solar system (planets, moon, etc) or searching for the faint fuzzy deep sky objects such as galaxies? The other question is if you want a manual telescope or if you want a motorized one. There are benefits to both.

Me personally, I LOVE manually finding objects to look at. To be honest, I feel like it is part of the hunt and I'm never as satisfied when I use a GoTo telescope. Other people dislike trying to find objects and just want to spend the time observing.

The benefit of a manual telescope is that you can buy a bigger telescope for the same price since you aren't paying for the electronics. This gives you "more bang for your buck" since a bigger aperture means more light gathered which means you can see dimmer objects. I bought a 12" dobsonian 4 years ago for 600 USD. This is a massive telescope and I can see amazing things with it. However, I have to use star maps and know how to find the objects I am looking for (which I truly enjoy doing). However, learning how to find the objects takes quite a bit of time and is a steep learning curve.

My father-in-law spent about 800 USD on a 6" SCT (schmidt cassegrain telescope) at the same time. It is a smaller scope, but this will track the night sky. After he aligns the telescope to the night sky, he just has to enter in the object he wants to see and the scope moves to the object and there is no searching required. Don't be fooled, though, aligning the telescope also has a steep learning curve and takes time.

So, if you are one that enjoys searching for thngs and wants the biggest telescope for the money--go with a dobsonian. This is a telescope that has a simple mount and the telescope design is also simple. This means that you can get the largest aperture possible for the money.

If you are one that doesn't enjoy searching but is willing to put more time into the setup initially, then go with a scope that has a motorized GoTo mount. These are often a SCT type telescope, but you can find other types as well.

Another consideration is that Dobsonian telescopes are large. Mine is about as tall as I am and only fits in my SUV if I put the seats down. An 8" telescope isn't nearly as big as mine but the tube is still about 45 inches (115 cm) long.

If storage of a large telescope or transport of a telescope this size will be difficult, then I would recommend an SCT. An 8" SCT is 17 inches (43 cm) long but has similar light gathering capacity. However, an 8" SCT is more expensive than an 8" dobsonian.

Then there is the whole debate on whether you go with a reflector telescope (uses a mirror) or a refractor (uses lenses). We could debate which is better for hours and nobody will be swayed. Refractors are precision instruments that have great magnification while maintaining comfortable eye pieces. They also can have great contrast making them beloved by planet observers. Reflectors typically have larger apertures which means you can see dimmer objects.

[Richard]

I cant really discuss prices but a 8 inch dobs is the best value anywhere , they are great scopes some with better extras depending on make but the best for beginners and for me , if you dont want to do AP thats the only way to go, for the same price in RSA you will get a 90 Mac, or a 90 refractor both not in the same league

[Mack41]

Thanks for the replies, I had a think of what I actually wanted it for and decided that starting in our solar statement was probably best and being a complete beginner I’ve decided on one of the Celestron Astro Fi 5 Schmidt-Cassegrain Catadioptic.
With the control being by the app I thought it might teach me a thing or two while using it

[JayTee]

If you're observing interests are mainly and mostly visual, get the 8" Dob. It's that simple.

Cheers,
JT

[notFritzArgelander]

I find that there are some DSOs like globular clusters and galaxies that need 8" aperture to start to become pleasant.

[pakarinen]

It should be mentioned that you can add push-to encoders to a manual scope when / if you want to do that. It's not cheap, but things can be done incrementally as your interests evolve. Also, if the push-to fails, you can keep observing easily. I'm not sure that's the case with go-to, but I have very limited knowledge of GTs.

[Sky Tinker]

Actually, your Celestron "AstroMaster" 130mm f/5 Newtonian is quite an all-rounder, with powers ranging from a low 20x, to 200x and beyond with the aid of 2x and 3x barlows. However, that particular brand and model is not very good.

But what you may be wanting is an all-rounder with an appreciable amount of aperture. The only other all-rounder would be a 150mm f/5 Newtonian...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflec ... s-ota.html

...and with powers ranging from 23x to 200x and beyond. The lowest powers of both may be considered as being binocular-like, and therefore with a respectably wide field-of-view.

Unfortunately, as one goes up in aperture, say, to a 200mm or 250mm, the focal-length necessarily, and regrettably, becomes longer. I'm afraid that you can't get past the physics in that. Those instruments, even a 200mm f/5, would not be that much of an all-rounder. The 200mm Newtonian-Dobsons are at f/6, and certainly are not all-rounders, although certainly closer to being one than a 200mm f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain. You could go with this 200mm f/5, and for visual use only; certainly also for dabbling in afocal-photography, or EAA even...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflec ... p-eq5.html

The lowest power with that one would be 32x however; not exactly wide-field, but not narrow and microscopic either.

I do see that perhaps you have not had the pleasure of owning and operating a refractor; for example...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/evosta ... ounts.html

[AbbN]

Another vote for the 8" Dob - great all rounder scope.

Abb

[Richard]

The go to scopes like my 5 inch SCT are nice to have but with modern tech where your phone finds things for you not needed , modern scopes are almost all made in China , so getting a good one depends on quality control which is better with the well know brands , I only use my GO To scope to track objects

[gregl]

I'd also suggest that you find a local club and attend some of their events before you buy. Looking at photos in catalogs doesn't really tell the whole story. You should see the scopes in person, look through them, and talk to the owners about the pros and cons. You need to know what you can expect to see through various scopes, and have a go at actually operating one, before taking the plunge. And you also need to know about the other stuff you'll need such as an observing chair, folding table for the eyepiece case, etc., and, as has been mentioned, whether you can handle it all and have a place to store it. (A friend of mine says the hobby is not about astronomy. It's about equipment cases.) Around here scopes show up on Craigslist because someone bought with unrealistic expectations.

[Apollo69s]

Im not a specialist,but i ended up with Bresser-Refractor--At lest your looking the right way--I get hooked by the long one,1200mm---thers also a short model 760mm,for the deep space fanatics,,with a little better wide field views..but i tink,and what i maybe or not figured out--with the 1200 you get little closer to the object ,,in certain distance..And you can put it every where,,and dont be ashamed,,for the new functional furniture..Its realy amazing,,eveytime i look at it..

[Baurice]

My wife asked me why I need 5 telescopes. I mostly use two: one for planetary viewing and one for solar hydrogen alpha viewing.

Most of the time I'm outside I just use my camera.

[Lokifish]

Late to the party, but I'd like to bring up some additional factors I use in trying to determine the best telescope.

Environmental
Do you plan to use the telescope in a high particulate or low particulate area?
Is the humidity generally high or low?

For example, where I live the humidity is high and everything turns yellow with pollen in spring and summer. The rest of the time it's road tar dust, and who knows what else, due to the highways/construction/etc. As a result, a lot of care needs to be taken with open tube scopes like Newtonians. To combat this on my Newtonian I had to install a fan and MERV 8 filter at the primary mirror to combat the high level of particulates in my air. Prior to that, the mirrors would visibly haze over with a coating of pollen, tar, etc, every few months.


Light Pollution
What is you level of light pollution like?
Do you plan to visit darker skies on a regular basis?

Telescopes make no distinction between photons from what you want to see and light pollution. So while an 8 or 12 Newt/Dob is great, heavy LP skies will flood your eyepiece with unwanted light. This can get to the point where the sky glow actually damages your eye's dark adaptation every time you look through the eyepiece. You can use LP filters to compensate for this, but that only goes so far. You are then left to viewing only very bright targets, or using a "petrol filter" to get to darker skies. In my case (severe light pollution), this is the reason why I gave up on almost all visual observations at home beyond solar/lunar/planetary.


While I didn't mention more common things like "what do you want to observe", I find the two factors above to be very critical points on a "So you want a telescope" checklist.