Telescope buying guide
When buying your first telescope you may be asking “What kind of Telescope should I buy?” Read our beginners telescope guide to find out.
To confuse matters there are a range of styles and types of telescope options to choose from. If you are just starting your journey in Telescopes this guide will help you to get looking into the night sky. There is a huge range of options to suit most budgets. The more expensive options will use higher quality components and lenses, but there are some high quality budget options available for under £100.
There are two basic types of telescope which most beginners will encounter.
REFRACTORS
This is the most popular style of Beginners telescopes and work by employing a glass lens at one end of the tube that gives a magnified view of the sky.
These telescopes tend to be quite lightweight and easy to set up. They usually have interchangeable eyepieces that allow variations on magnification. Due to their smaller size and weight they are a good option for general sky gazing, especially if you plan to travel to a dark sky zone.
One important aspect to telescope design is aperture size (diameter of the front of the tube) and in this case refractors can be a little limited. Wider aperture refractors can be bulky and expensive and harder to handle for amateur users.
REFLECTORS
These types of telescopes have an open tube at the front and a mirror lens at the bottom of the tube. Light is reflected onto a secondary angled mirror and out through the eyepiece.
The benefit of this design is that it allows for much wider apertures than is possible with a refractor allowing brighter and deeper views.
Like a refractor beginners telescope, a reflector can be mounted onto a tripod, however some also have options of mounting onto a swivel base.
Reflectors can offer a more powerful option, but are a little more complicated in set up and may not be as portable as refractor telescopes.
BUYING GUIDE
Danubia Jupiter Refractor Astro Telescope - Good entry level Telescope
- 2 Year Warranty
- 35-400x Magnification
- 700mm Focal Length
- 1.25" Accessory Mount
- 5x24mm Finderscope
- Complete with aluminium tripod
- Accessories Included
Danubia Merkur 60A Refractor Telescope - A powerful beginners telescope
- 2 Year Warranty
- 45-454x Magnification
- 910mm Focal Length
- 1.25" Accessory Mount
- 5x24mm Finderscope
- Complete with aluminium tripod
- Accessories Included
Danubia Meteor 31 Newtonian Reflector Telescope - Entry level reflector telescope
- 2 Year Warranty
- 35-232x Magnification
- 700mm Focal Length
- Compact
- 1.25" Accessory Mount
- 5 x 24mm Finderscope
- Complete with Aluminium Tripod
- Accessories Included
Danubia Saturn 50 Newton Reflector Telescope - Enthusiast level reflector telescope
- 2 Year Warranty
- 45-450x Magnification
- 900mm Focal Length
- 1.25" Accessory Mount
- 5x24mm Finderscope
- EQ-2 Equatorial Mount
- Complete with aluminium tripod
- Accessories Included
