Best Telescope Reviews

 The Best Telescope Reviews.

 27^th March, 2012.

 The telescope market is confusing, to say the least, so don’t panic when you see thousands of different products on the market, I am a keen amateur astronomer, and have given you my top recommendations at different price ranges. I have only reviewed the best telescopes, it's not my style to review a telescope and then say that it's a bad product, so whichever one you see on these pages will be a good purchase.

 Astronomy is a fantastic hobby, I remember being given my first small telescope one Christmas, and while the rest of the family were sleeping off the turkey, I was out in the cold getting my first views of the moons of Jupiter, tiny points of light that were invisible to the naked eye.

 That had me hooked, but straight away I saw what a huge range of telescopes were on offer, and had no idea what was suitable for my budget, what things were essential or just nice options, or even the difference between refractor, and reflector telescopes.

 If you are in a similar situation, then hopefully, things will be much clearer after you read this. I’ve started this site in late March, 2012, and can only write in my spare time. I will be adding as many reviews, articles, guides, and advice as I can in future, but at the moment, you can visit Amazon for full reviews of my recommended telescopes, until I get time to add them here.

 The Basics.

  If you are totally new to star gazing, and looking to buy your first telescope, I’ll cover a couple of the basics so that you have some idea of what type to go for, and what you can expect to see with each telescope.

 There are two basic types of telescope, Refractors, and Reflectors.

 Refractor telescopes are the traditional looking long tube, where you look in one end, and point the telescope at what you wish to see. They are a great choice for starters, can be surprisingly powerful and can deliver some great images.

 Reflector telescopes tend to be shorter and fatter, light comes in at the open end, is bounced off two mirrors, and into an eyepiece on the side of the telescope body. High-end telescopes are usually reflectors, but you can get some very cheap ones, my first telescope was a reflector, and it gave great results, for not much money.

  Magnification.

 One surprising thing I found out when looking for my next telescope, was that you do not necessarily want go for the highest magnification possible. This is because unless you are going for a high end telescope, you will find that the higher the magnification, the dimmer the image becomes.

 You may also find the images wobble about at higher magnifications, and this is due to movement of the air in the atmosphere. (Tip- for this reason star gazing is easier on cold nights when there is less heat disturbing the air.)

 If you get a telescope with 32x magnification, you will still be able to see many objects in reasonable detail, such as the bands of cloud on Jupiter, but if possible, go for 50x magnification, which is enough to give you more detail, but not so much that the images start to dim

 If you can afford it, you will find a computer controlled telescope invaluable. These have handsets and databases that allow you to type in a set of co-ordinates and the telescope will move to the correct position to view what you want.

 Without computer control, you will find yourself spending a lot of time trying to get object perfectly lined up in the eyepiece, and you will have to keep constantly moving the telescope to keep the object in view as its’ orbit and the spin of the earth makes distant stars and planets move surprisingly quickly around the sky.

 That’s not to say computer control is essential, but it’s certainly the best up-grade you will make.

 Where to Buy Your Telescope?

 By far the biggest range of telescopes is at Amazon, they have literally thousands on offer, usually at lower prices than you will find elsewhere, as they do not need expensive shops.

 On the right, you will see our recommended buys, but please take time to browse the Amazon store to see if any other telescopes appeal to you. There are some very useful images taken through the telescopes on offer, so you will see exactly how powerful each one is.