Buying a telescope that fits all of your needs without leaving a dent in your finances is a balancing act that many astronomers can find daunting – especially those that are new to the hobby. It’s often easy to go for the telescope that does the most and has the heftiest price tag, but this can sometimes result in disaster. Especially so if you find yourself getting frustrated with using your new instrument, so much so that your shiny new impulse buy is soon gathering dust in a corner of your house.
Of course, the other extreme is that you might spend so little on your telescope that you end up conning yourself. That is, buying a telescope from a catalogue or website that is nothing more than a toy or cheap instrument from a non-reputable dealer. Both ways are a waste of your finances and a waste of time. So what do you do to ensure you don’t fall into this trap?
The answer is to know exactly how much you’re willing to spend, what you find most exciting about the night sky and whether that interest is going to stay with you for a good amount of time. For instance, if you’re a Solar System observer and you would like nothing more than to gaze at the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn or the craters and ridges of the Moon, you should go for a telescope that’s capable of achieving these views. If you can’t decide, or perhaps would prefer to observe anything and everything in the night sky, but you want a telescope that’s relatively easy to set up, then you can also buy a more general instrument that fits this criteria.
The next
