![]() Don’t be afraid to buy used, just make sure it’s coming from someone who knows about the telescope and astronomy, took care of the telescope and is reputable. You’ll be hard pressed to find quality telescopes on the used marked for less than $150.00 and brand new under $250. If you set your budget too low, you get into a price point where the quality of telescopes is just plain poor. The first question addresses how much you want to spend. Naturally, the more automation, generally the more money you will spend. Still other scopes are completely manual and you must do all the finding and tracking. Other telescopes have motors that once you find the object through the telescope, the motors will keep up with the rotation of Earth. ![]() However this may not be the best way to learn the night sky. These fully automated scopes are almost fool proof and will find objects for you and track them as the Earth rotates. How much “help” do I want from my telescope? Some telescopes automatically calibrate themselves and with very little input from you and align themselves quite accurately.Does your telescope (and gear) need to fit in your car for transportation to other sites? How portable does my telescope need to be? Do you live in an apartment on the 3rd floor or in a house with a good sized garage for storage? Carrying an 8’ Dobsonian scope up and down several flights of stairs will get very tiring very quickly.On the other hand even a small aperture telescope under really dark skies will amaze you. Where will I use my telescope? Will I use my telescope in overly light polluted skies, suburban skies or very dark skies? Even the biggest aperture telescope cannot compensate for light polluted skies.Also, certain equipment is better suited for astrophotography. What do I want to look at? Do I want to get into astrophotography? The rationale behind this question is that certain types of telescopes are better for viewing certain objects than others. ![]() You can always purchase additional accessories later but you will need a few eyepieces and other basics to start. However you should devote at least 25% of your budget for accessories like eyepieces, reference material (charts, books, planispheres, etc.). There are good scopes available even for modest budgets.
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