Telescope types. There are three kinds of telescopes:

With a few exceptions, first telescopes are usually either reflectors or refractors. Most compound telescopes tend to break a $499 budget in a hurry, although there are a few available in this price range. If you are ready for a more expensive scope, however, our website at www.astronomics.com has telescopes ranging in price up to the cost of an SUV or a small house.

No telescope is perfect. Most telescopes are capable, with varying degrees of success, of showing you thousands of the most intriguing sights in the skies and on the ground. That means there are probably many models that would make you happy. But no telescope does it all perfectly. Every telescope and telescope type has a few observing areas where it really excels, and others where it’s no more than adequate.

Refractors, for example, are usually better at high power observing of bright objects, like the Moon and planets, than they are at finding faint nebulas and galaxies. Large aperture reflectors are normally just the reverse – gathering a lot of light to let you see large and faint nebulas and galaxies outside the solar system that are simply too dim to be seen by a smaller refractor. So, which type of telescope is better for you quite often depends on what kind of heavenly objects interest you the most.

The first step in choosing your first telescope, then, is to think about what it is in the skies you want to see. If there are celestial sights that you just have to see with your own eyes, you can pick the kind of scope that excels at that kind of observing, while still knowing it will do a reasonable job of showing you the rest of the heavens.

Do you want to look up in the fall and winter and experience the full sweep of the 3° wide Andromeda Galaxy, or marvel at the face-on spiral galaxy M33 pinwheeling silently across Triangulum? Do you want to swim in the flood of Milky Way stars that rise like a silent cloud of steam from the Teapot spout of Sagittarius in the summer? If this kind of observing is your cup of tea, then large astronomical binoculars may be all that you need.

Perhaps the planets fascinate you? Are you drawn by the multi-ringed disk of Saturn’s rings; by the ever-changing dance of Jupiter’s moons; by the planet-wide dust storms of Mars; and by the mountains, valleys, and craters of our own Moon? If so, a refractor may be the scope for you.

Does your heart beat faster when you think of names like the Pleiades, the Lagoon, the Rosette, the Ring? Do you want to see, with your own eyes, lights and sights from the distant edges of our Universe? Then a reflector may be the proper instrument to unveil infinity for you.

Based on what you want to observe most, the chart below can give you a feel for what you can see (and how well you can see it) with the various sizes and types of telescopes available in the under $500 range. It will start to narrow your search for the right telescope to a few specific types and sizes.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT TO SEE IN A TELESCOPE?

TYPE OF SCOPE WITHIN THE SOLAR SYSTEM STARS DEEP SKY OBJECTS 60mm to 70mm refractor, at powers of 25x to 125x (solar system objects generally need 60x and up) sunspots (with an appropriate solar filter); the phases of Venus; lunar craters as small as four or five miles in diameter; several cloud belts on Jupiter, plus the four Galilean moons; the rings of Saturn (and occasionally Cassini’s division, with good seeing) double stars separated by as little as 2 arc seconds in good seeing; faint stars down to magnitude 11.5 the larger globular star clusters, some of the brighter nebulas, virtually all of the Messier objects from a dark sky site (although with relatively little detail visible in many of them) 80mm to 90mm refractor, or a 4" to 4.5" reflector, or a 3.5" catadioptric, at 16x to 250x structure in sunspots (with an appropriate solar filter); the phases of Mercury; lunar rilles and craters less than three miles across; Martian polar caps and major dark surface features; several additional cloud belts on Jupiter; Cassini’s division in Saturn’s rings on a regular basis, plus four or five of its moons; Uranus and Neptune visible as very small discs double stars separated by 1.5 arc seconds or less in good seeing; faint stars to better than magnitude 12 dozens of globular clusters, emission nebulas, planetary nebulas, and galaxies; all of the Messier objects and many of the brighter NGC objects from a dark sky site (with some internal detail visible in many nebulas, although most galaxies will remain relatively featureless hazy patches) 6" reflector, at 30x to 300x rilles and other lunar features less than two miles across; more dark surface features on Mars; detail in Jupiter’s cloud belts with good seeing; subtle cloud belts on Saturn’s disk; many faint comets and brighter asteroids double stars separated by about 1 arc second in good seeing; faint stars down to magnitude 13 or better hundreds of star clusters, nebulas, and galaxies (with hints of spiral structure visible in some galaxies); many more objects from a dark sky site (considerable detail in nebulas and clusters) 8" reflector, at 50x to 400x lunar features under one mile across; large clouds and dust storms on Mars; as many as six or seven of Saturn’s moons; Jupiter’s four Galilean moons start to show as tiny discs at high powers; many dimmer asteroids become visible as faint star-like points How To Pick A Telescope . . . | Telescopes | Eyepieces | Microscopes | Binoculars | Accessories | Terms | FAQ |  Terms of Sale | Privacy Policy | Fine Print Toll-Free Telephone: 800-422-7876 Alternate Telephone: 405-364-0858 24 Hour Fax Line: 405-447-3337 Telephone Hours: Monday-Friday 8 AM - 9 PM CST Saturday Noon - 5 PM CST Store Hours: Monday-Friday 9 AM - 5 PM CST Saturday Noon - 5 PM CST First Telescope 680 S.W. 24th Ave. Norman, OK, 73069 © 2010 by Ad-Libs Advertising, Inc. All rights reserved