Best auto-find telescope for beginners.?

Question

I want a decent entry level to intermediate level auto find telescope for a reasonable price. Any Recommendations?

Answer 1

Unless you spend a great deal of money auto telescopes are not worth getting. Buy one and find out.

Or save the money and spend it on a bigger telescope you can use with ease.

Sometimes they work OK. If they don't , can you do anything about it? Can you find something you want to look at?

If you buy a normal manual telescope you will be able to do that much more easily than with an auto telescope that forgot where north because it wasn't facing the right way it is or wasn't exactly level or it had a temporary software hitch or an update that went wrong and sent you to the wrong place.

Beware of what you want. You might get it one day and regret it.

Here are three answers from amateur astronomers.... money is better spent on decent optics than on computer drive.

https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20100514022927AAawh8w . . . . . . .

$50-200 won't buy you more than a toy for a telescope. It will get one or two accessories for a telescope though.

Answer 2

There is no such thing as an "auto-find" telescope. All telescopes require a certain amount of knowledge of the sky and a willingness to invest some time in learning about it. The danger with inexpensive computerized telescopes is that most of the money goes into the computer and almost nothing into the optics. You end up with a telescope which can point at all sorts of things that you can't actually see because the telescope is too small. You're better off spending the money on good optics, which will actually let you see things in the sky. You need to spend at least $400 to get a computerized telescope which will actually let you see interesting things.



Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner's telescopes:

http://www.gaherty.ca/tme/TME0702_Buying_a_Telescope.pdf

http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html

http://observers.org/beginner/j.r.f.beginner.html



For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington's Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley).



You'll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these:

http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=telescopes/~VIEW_INDEX=0/~VIEW_SIZE=1000000

http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product.php?class1=1&class2=106



Buy from a store which specializes in telescopes and astronomy, either locally or online; don't buy from department stores, discount stores or eBay as mostly what they sell is junk. Find your local astronomy club and try out different telescopes at one of their star parties:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations



I strongly recommend that beginners steer clear of astrophotography until they have learned their way around the sky. Astrophotography is by far the most expensive and difficult area of amateur astronomy.



Many people who buy telescopes have no idea how to find interesting things to observe. A good introduction to finding things is NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly). A more advanced book is Star Watch by Phil Harrington (Wiley).

Answer 3

earlier you purchase a telescope you are able to connect a community astronomy club. The Dobsonian gets you the suited photograph and enable you to work out dimmer gadgets much less stressful. yet devoid of the goto you will could study the thank you to action picture star hop and study a action picture star chart. The Celestron Sky Prodigy a hundred thirty notwithstanding if has an inner action picture star chart (GoTo) and can locate gadgets for you and teach you the thank you to stipulate your way around the sky the fee ticket on the Celestron Sky Prodigy a hundred thirty seems somewhat steep once you ought to purchase a Celestron NexStar SLT series a hundred thirty SLT for virtually 0.5 the fee with equivalent overall performance. i could bypass with the GoTo sort scope. regardless of which one you purchase, in case you get hooked you will probable yet a 2d scope interior 2 years. My first scope improve right into a Goto and leaning the thank you to apply it improve right into a breeze.My 2d is an 8" SCT. and that i'm constantly observing for a deal on my third.

Answer 4

Starrysk has a good answer above.



I would also suggest that you read these two articles:



http://www.texasastro.org/telescope.php



http://www.texasastro.org/mounts.php

Answer 5

go to opticsplanet.com and look in the $50-200 price range