If you’re feeling bold, then perhaps you are willing to take the leap straight from the Vixen Space Eye to the StarBlast 4.5. This telescope is widely considered to be excellent entry-level telescope after a children’s. Apart from its name, which gives some credit to its capabilities, the StarBlast is manufactured by Orion Telescopes and Binoculars, who specialize in making high-tech viewing equipment.

Most users have reviewed the StarBlast positively by saying how easy it was to set up, and how quickly they were able to start stargazing.

What’s the difference between the StarBlast and similar user-friendly telescopes?

Range and View

The StarBlast is a reflector telescope, featuring a wide body and a small aperture over a sixty-six-degree angle.

What does that mean?

The telescope will be able to include more objects in its field (and more for you to view) while still retaining the power to see things so far away it’s almost unbelievable. Sure, we may see the various planets in our solar system and glimpse stars and nebulas outside of it, but what about the Andromeda galaxy, our closest neighbor?

That’s right, the StarBlast has the jaw-dropping power to see objects outside our galaxy, and it can be yours for under two-hundred dollars.

Optics

The power to see those objects requires incredibly intricate and advanced optics, hence the hefty price. However, the quality of such views and the pictures you take will be unmatched by almost any telescope in this price range.  Two eyepieces come with the telescope—a 15mm and a 6mm and a maximum magnification of being 75 times the original setting when using the 6mm eyepiece.

Handling

The StarBlast weighs more than the other telescopes we’ve reviewed—close to twenty pounds. It isn’t too difficult to move if you’re a burly adult or teenager. However, the size of the tripod and the large body of the StarBlast are not to be underestimated when children are near. While it may be an easy telescope to use, it’s handling is another criteria altogether.

The EQ-1 mount introduces slow-motion controls to the telescope market, making the tracking of celestial objects easier without the need of advanced computer systems that raise the price of more sophisticated telescopes.

Overall

We found it incredibly difficult to find bad things to say about this extraordinary telescope. There’s no doubt that the optics are extremely delicate, so you have to be careful during the initial assembly. The opportunity to view objects outside our solar system is well worth the couple hundred required to obtain the StarBlast.

What? How did a product not made by Celestron make our best telescopes list? The reasons will vary, but the factor that concerns most buyers of telescopes is the price. Meade Instruments manufactures the Infinity AZ, and for the price, we know you’ll be pleased with what you get.

The Infinity AZ is a 70mm telescope, identifiable by its long barrel. Like the 90 GT, this body allows the telescope to see deeper into space than most. The ability to see deep into space for such a minuscule price is hardly a deal to pass up. The further the view range, the more magical the wonders of space become.

What do you get?

We are easily enticed by the low price of the Infinity AZ, but what exactly do you get? The 70mm scope allows for an excellent view range of space compared to the smaller or larger apertures. It rotates along an altazimuth mount, allowing generous freedom of movement.

Is the price the only difference maker? The answer is no. Unlike most telescopes that are made for or are primarily used at night, the Infinity AZ can be used during the daytime for activities such as birdwatching.

The telescope utilizes what’s called a rack and pinion focuser. Many refractor telescopes share this mechanism of focusing. However, it is prone to wear and tear due to the gears involved. Users should keep watch on the body of the Infinity AZ if they use it regularly.

Eyepieces and Viewfinders

The Infinity AZ, when purchased, comes with three interchangeable eyepieces and two lenses that allow you to adjust the magnification. Some customers have reported seeing as far as Jupiter and its various moons.

With careful calibration of the telescopes knobs, you can adjust the quality of your view. A red dot viewfinder also comes in the assembly, canceling out the chronic problem of “skipping” when trying to track an object in the night sky.

Overall

The Infinity AZ is not the most powerful telescope out there, but it gets the job done. Many reviewers have identified it as an excellent entry-level telescope after the Vixen Space Eye. It’s variable optics will allow for different magnification and power settings.

The price is important to take into account when looking for an upgraded telescope. You can count on the fact that you will never run out of things to look for.

Astrophotography is exactly how the name sounds—taking pictures of the great unknown. However, astrophotography requires a different type of telescope altogether. The NexStar 130 SLT is built by the same company, Celestron, that makes the AstroMaster 114 EQ, also a great telescope. There are fundamental differences that come with the 130 SLT, specifically the optics that are involved for the telescope to specialize in astrophotography.

It is not uncommon to see people modify their typical telescopes to be astrophotography capable. However, this process can be very risky if you don’t know what you’re doing. That is why the 130 SLT, being dedicated to astrophotography, will be the best choice for you to avoid all the risks of modding.

Differences with Normal Telescopes

To start, the 130 SLT is computerized, unlike most telescopes that you can simply look through with no questions asked. SInce the 130 SLT is a dedicated astrophotographer, the computer systems, and the photography software can be a little tricky to operate. Most customers have found issue with errors that usually stem from a mix-up in the process of setting the telescope up to take pictures.

You can count on the 130 SLT being more delicate and sensitive to sudden movements than most telescopes. You might have the perfect picture of a celestial object lined up, and then lose the entire focus because of vibration or disturbance. Be careful around it and its computer hardware!

Aperture

The 130 SLT packs a large 130mm aperture, giving it the ability to collect light on a broad scale, which is perfect for astrophotography. If you are unfamiliar with aperture, here’s a quick rundown:

• Smaller the Aperture (big numbers)— The less light enters the lens, but you will get more precise and sharper photos.
• Bigger the aperture (small numbers)— The more light enters the lens, allowing for better depth of field and more light gathering from distant objects.

It can be quite confusing to remember the inverse details of aperture, but it’s important just to practice and test the limits of the 130 SLT. The telescope also sports a feature called SkyAlign, enabling you to align and focus on up to three bright objects in the sky. There are innumerable numbers of stars and objects giving off an extraordinary amount of light, so don’t feel limited!

Mount

The 130 SLT comes equipped with a motorized Altazimuth mount. This makes it easier to track objects as they move across the sky instead of using your hands. The real difference maker is the brightness of the object you are looking at. If you are trying to look at a far away planet or object, there’s a good chance it might not generate enough light for the telescope to see.

Similar to the accessories of the AstroMaster, Celestron provides you with a 4,000 object database to scour the sky for. Having the database is one thing, but the night sky is never the same as the evening before, so be on the lookout for new objects that appear each night!

Overall

The 130 SLT will be one of the more tricky telescopes to handle given its purpose, but that doesn’t mean it’s unfriendly to beginners. It will cost you a couple of hundred bucks, but you have to put that into perspective. You’ll be receiving one of the best astrophotography telescopes out there with some different features included.

With all the various tools and programs included, rest assured that you’ll be taking and saving pictures of the stars and planets in no time.

We all know that telescopes are some of the most advanced and intricate pieces of technology in the modern age. But have you considered a telescope that you can control…from an app on your smartphone? Celestron continues to amaze us with new and innovative products, this time with the COSMOS 90 GT.

You’ll be able to differentiate the 90 GT from other, powerful Celestron products by its longer, tubular body. You’ll also notice that there is no place to properly grip the telescope. The 90 GT is a completely hands-free telescope, except for the controls you make on the smartphone/tablet app.

Apps and WiFi

Unlike most telescopes, this one is perhaps the best to be controlled within the vicinity of your home, assuming you have WiFi close by. The COSMOS Celestron Navigator app is free to download for iPhone, iPad, and Android smart devices.

This telescope seems like it’s a product of the next generation and more in tune with the larger, more advanced telescopes used by research institutions. Why bother fiddling with your hands when an app, database, and controls are all on your smart device?

A drawback to this telescope is that it can only be controlled through a WiFi connection to its associated apps. If you’re out in the wilderness hoping to use this telescope, the only solution would be to use your smart device as a mobile hotspot. Regardless, the 90 GT is a preferred stay-at-home telescope.

Tripod

One aspect of the 90 GT that can be difficult to adapt to is the stabilization of the tripod. Many users have reported problems with their view because the tripod’s legs are always displaced and at different levels. You will find the process of using this telescope harder than usual if you live near inconsistent terrain. Even streets can be uneven with cement being bumpy and rough.

You may have to innovate to get the tripod on solid and sturdy ground. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you have a mobile, flat surface for the tripod to stand on. A side walk will also make a good substitute.

Accessories

Like most Celestron products, the 90 GT comes with at StarPointer finderscope, always a handy addition for anyone who has trouble tracking objects with just their hands. The COSMOS Navigator App that controls the telescope will be immensely useful in finding stars and identifying constellations.

The 90 GT is perhaps the best in its class at generating fine views of planets. While planets do not produce nearly as much light as stars, the 90 GT makes up for this by employing a 90mm refracting lens. It also comes equipped with two differing size eyepieces (20mm and 10mm) for different magnifications, depending on how far you want to look up into the sky.

Overall

The 90 GT is a fantastic and outrageously advanced telescoped to be able to be controlled by your smartphone. The telescope will automatically adjust to the commands given to it and with the correct placement of the legs, give you quality viewing.

While some may find its requirement of WiFi to be problematic, the 90 GT will compensate you by giving you some of the best views of the planets in our solar system. Perhaps you’re interested to see what the long fabled rings of Jupiter look like?

The COSMOS 90 GT can help you with that.

So your kids have been crying and pulling your clothes begging for you to get them a telescope. The question is, can you trust your children to handle such a delicate, intricate piece of equipment? Maybe they want to be astronauts or astronomers one day, and there is a telescope perfect to suit their unquenchable thirst to explore.

The Vixen Space Eye is an excellent family-friendly telescope that has brought people of all ages together through its power to make the distant stars light up in its lenses. Let’s explore how the Space Eye has earned its reputation.

Assembly and Parts

One of the reasons behind the Vixen’s family-friendly nature is its weight. At a comfortable scale of 6 pounds (minus the tripod), the Space Eye is the lightest telescope on the market. This makes it easier for younger children to carry it around without close adult supervision. Nevertheless, you’ll want to be careful considering the telescope and its optics are still pricey.

Be careful, however—just because the telescope is light doesn’t mean it isn’t easy to tip over by accident if bumped or hit.

Eyepiece

The Space Eye is constructed with a single 50mm eyepiece which makes it suitable for entry point magnification. It also comes equipped with a slow motion 5×20 finder scope for an easier time tracking objects as they move across the sky. People with telescopes that are not equipped with finder scopes might experience their object “skipping” as they view it.

This is a refracting telescope, which according to our guide, means that it makes use of a primary lens as its objective. The maximum magnification of the Space Eye is 100x the original. This gives it a noticeable punch to its viewing power but not on the level of the Astromaster, the next step up.

The Space Eye can come equipped with a 51x magnification and additional 70mm, 20mm, and 4mmm eyepieces depending on the customer. You are likely to pay extra for these modifications.

Mount

To be able to look up into the night sky in the first place requires a particular type of mount. The Space Eye makes use of an altazimuth (alt-azimuth) mount that allows it to objects on the vertical and horizontal axis.

Overall

Prices vary on the Space Eye, but one thing you can count on with this telescope is reliability. It doesn’t have the most powerful optics in the world, but it will give you a good first impression of the stars. For its unbeatable low price, the Space Eye is fun for not just one user, but the entire family.

For a beginner, it can be hard to determine what type of telescope to purchase. There are telescopes designed for easy handling by children, but you’re probably looking to take a step further into the more advanced and sophisticated telescopes. If this is the case, then Celestron has constructed a reflector telescope called the AstroMaster 114 EQ specifically for your needs.

The AstroMaster makes use of an easy, no tool assembly process so buyers can have an easier and quicker time putting the main components together. This telescope is collectively known as a beginner’s telescope. It would make sense that the Celestron is easy to use, but it’s also a powerful instrument in its right.

Eye Piece

Depending on the seller, the AstroMaster will come with two eyepieces—10mm and 20mm. The 10mm is a 100x magnification eyepiece while the 20mm is a 50x magnification. This will be helpful in clearing up blurry images of objects near and far.

All in all, the eyepieces of this telescope pack a powerful punch, with many reviewers able to see planets such as Saturn and clear views of the moon’s many craters. Compared to most stars and galaxies, the local planets in our solar system are relatively easy to see, so don’t be afraid to test the Astromaster’s magnification to see what otherworldly views you can discover.

Star Pointer

The star pointer is not all too different from a handheld laser pointer. It attaches to the telescope and fires a laser into the sky to match what you are looking at. If you want to see something during the day, the color of the laser can sometimes be interchangeable, but Celestron’s is primarily red.

Object Database

Purchasing the AstroMaster will also provide you with the SkyX – First Light Edition database. The software has over 10,000-night sky objects stored on star maps(which you can also print) and a variety of HD images that you can look at.

Cool Features

If you’re willing to spend a little more, you can upgrade the AstroMaster to accomplish even more feats.

Have you ever thought about tracking the movement of an object across the sky? It may look like all those stars and planets in the heavens are standing still, but in reality, they are moving at a rapid pace. If you look away from your telescope for a few minutes or even adjust the settings slightly, whatever you were viewing could be miles away in a different part of the sky.

The AstroMaster solves this problem by offering a motor drive that locks on to a particular object of your choosing and tracks its movement across the sky. Even further, the telescope itself automatically adjusts for the curvature and spin of the Earth during the night.

Overall

For the price, the AstroMaster is one of the best telescopes on the market, and it is a worthwhile investment. It also comes equipped with the tripod necessary to maneuver the telescope across a wide range of space. If you’ve outgrown your child’s telescope but aren’t quite ready to make a huge leap into stargazing, the AstroMaster is the right choice for you.

When you set out to purchase a telescope, ask yourself, what do you want to see? Do you want to be able to see planets and bright, pulsing stars? Maybe you want to be able to view objects but aren’t keen on purchasing the most advanced telescope on the market.

Telescope manufacturers construct different telescopes according to the user’s needs. Some are specialized in astrophotography—taking pictures of the various objects in the night sky. Others are simple and easily assembled for children to get the most out of them.

In this guide, we will explore what you will want to look for in a good telescope when you decide to purchase one for the first time. We only wish we could provide you with the power of the Hubble Space Telescope in your hands. But with this guide, you’ll be looking at the most affordable and accessible options.

For further information on the individual and more accurate parts of different telescopes, check out our guide here.

What to Look for When Purchasing a Telescope

There are some different features that you should consider when seeking to buy a telescope. However, some things could deter you from buying one as well. For instance, some telescopes and their ads talk only about the power of the telescope. Even though power can be a major feature, which you will learn shortly, generally, a telescope that has a large power ad is on the lower end of quality.

As we mentioned earlier, different telescopes are built for specific purposes; you make sure you’re looking at one that suits your needs. However, there are basic features that most telescopes will have.

Aperture

The aperture of a telescope can refer to one of two things: the objective mirror of a reflector or the objective lens of a refractor. This is the part that gives a telescope “power”. The aperture is required to let the light into the scope, and therefore, this is why it is important to look at. For most amateurs, you want a refractor around 2.4 inches to 3.1 inches and a reflector around 4.5 inches to 6 inches.

Price

With this aspect, one saying comes to mind, “You get what you pay for.” This saying is particularly the case when purchasing a telescope. There are a lot of different telescopes on the market, and some of them are more expensive than others. To tell the truth, the average astronomer does not need an extremely expensive telescope. They can observe what they want to see without spending all of the excess money. However, if you are interested in higher end astronomy, you will not be able to witness it with a lower price ranged telescope.

Mount

This part is a lot more important than most people might think. The mount connects the cylindrical object that is the telescope to the tripod. You will be able to choose between one of two types of mounts: an equatorial mount or an altazimuth mount. An equatorial mount is designed to look at the sky while the altazimuth mount is designed more like a camera tripod and can be adjusted up and down & back and forth.

Refractor/Reflector

When light first enters a telescope, it hits the objective, which promptly redirects the light to the appropriate lens. Most telescopes will vary between refracting and reflecting lenses. A refracting telescope makes use of an actual lens called the primary lens as its objective. A reflecting telescope uses one or more curved lens to focus light in different directions to produce the highest quality image.

1. Reflecting Telescope-Primary Mirror
2. Refracting Telescope-Primary Lens

This is the part that holds the pieces that allow the light to come through, which lets you view the stars. Refractors come in different sizes, and they have two different lenses.

Focal Length

The focal length of the entire telescope is the total distance between the primary lens (or mirror) and the focal point of the eyepieces (where all light rays meet). With telescopes and indeed most optics, their ability to gather light everything and focus it towards your eye is everything.

• Not all light rays approach the objective at a straight line, most are curved or bent and need to be redirected towards the eyepiece. However, these bent light rays will not hit the same focal point as the straight facing light rays do. They will hit different focal points that are parallel to the main one.
  • Where all these focal points are lined up is called the focal plane and it is here where all possible light is focused to your eye.

How does this pertain to you? Before you purchase a telescope, you’ll probably have to do a little math and determine what you want to be able to see.

Eye Relief

You probably don’t hear too much about eye relief unless you wear glasses. Eye relief is commonly known as the distance between the outermost lens (the one closest to your eye) and the pupil of your eye that absorbs the light running through the various optics of the telescope.

You’ll probably be placing your eye up close and personal with the eyepiece, but those with glasses or contact lenses will have a more difficult time with eyepieces with short eye relief. Those with glasses or contacts should look into orthoscopic eyepieces which provide a narrow and focused view uninhibited by short eye relief.

Eyepieces

Eyepieces are some of the most delicate pieces of telescopes, and it’s important you know what eyepiece you’re handling before you buy them. For this reason, we recommend you try them out in person at a store, club, or university open to the public.

For most telescopes, you only need one eyepiece, but some telescopes will have two or three to make it easier to view different aspects of the stars. For most beginners, the eyepiece is around 25mm. This is large enough to let you see what you wish to, but not too large to distort the images that you find.

• Don’t be fooled by telescopes advertising “high power” and “high magnification”. In the end, your first telescope purchase will depend on what you want to see and how you want to see it. A “high-powered” telescope may have such powerful magnification that you can’t see what you’re looking at because it’s too bright.
  • Having an eyepiece at a “low-power” will give you a greater field of view. That is—you have a wider field to look at more than one object. This is where you can decide to swap out for a higher magnification lens. Don’t settle for just one eyepiece that is either low or high power. Having more than one is usually the norm.

When we talk about eyepieces, the term magnification often comes up as well. This is because the magnification is directly related to the focal length of the entire telescope, and the focal length of the eyepiece. To get magnification, divide the focal length by the focal length of the eyepiece you are currently using.

• If a focal length is 2500 and the eyepiece is 25, then the magnification 100x (the “x” usually symbolizes magnification).

The smallest known eyepiece available to consumers is around 2.5mm while the largest extends beyond 60mm. Different combinations of focal lengths and focal lengths of eyepieces will yield you different sights and perhaps better quality views of the same celestial object.

• Millimeters stand for the length of eyepieces by their diameter.

Tips and Advice

Not all telescopes are going to have the desired specifications. Before you purchase your first telescope, test its magnification and limits before looking into replacement or more powerful lenses. Since a telescope’s optics are extremely sensitive, you should handle every piece with the utmost care. We don’t want your hard earned money to go down the drain because one of the lenses has a big, dirty finger print on it!