I have been researching the best telescopes for beginners for the past few days to find the perfect model for stargazing and learning astronomy. I read expert reviews from trusted sources like Sky and Telescope, Space com, and Celestron’s own guides, two models consistently stand out as top recommendations:
Gskyer Telescope
https://www.amazon.com/Gskyer-Telescope/dp/B00WCG3UOS?th=1
The Gskyer Telescope is a popular refractor model featuring high-quality optics. It is praised for its ease of use and affordability, making it a strong choice for beginners.
Celestron 22452 StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ
https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-StarSense-Smartphone-App-Enabled-Compatible/dp/B083JQBC1G?th=1
The Celestron 22452 StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ uses smartphone assisted star mapping technology which makes it incredibly beginner-friendly. It has reflector design which offers bright, sharp views of the moon, planets, and even some other sky objects.
I am having trouble deciding which one would suit me best. I am mainly interested in viewing the moon, planets, and bright nebulae. The budget is flexible but need something truly have of best quality and durability.
So which one would you recommend? Any advice or personal experience would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
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@katherine234 the single best thing you can do is stop immediately and find an astronomy club and join it. Spend time getting your hands on different kinds of scopes. Then you will know what to get. I would personally not recommend either of those.
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just my two bobs worth for an absolute beginner the seestar or dwarf as you can learn from their atlas where things are and it gets your head around the sky stars constellations etc and then work your way up to a more challenging set up no matter what you get their will be a learning curve.
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Both of those telescopes use Alt-Az mounts, meaning that they will not track objects in the sky. The cell phone adapter will not enable long exposure astroimaging, because the mount will not track automatically. This will limit you to lunar and planetary imgaging.
For a beginner, a dobsonian type of newtonian refelector telescope will enable you to see dimmer objects like Galaxies and nebulae, as you get more aperture per dollar spent.
If you insist on one or the other, get the reflector telescope, as ALL inexpensive refractor telescopes suffer from chromatic abberation.
Later, if you want to do astroimaging, a good solid German Equitorial Mount (GEM) can be purchased to mount a small refractor or reflector telescope. What expert astroimages do is to use and oversized GEM mount with smaller telescopes. Stay away form cheap refractors as the suffer from severe chromatic abberation.
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