Thanks to the smartphone adapter, you can view the telescope’s images on your smartphone. But that’s not such an issue with the f/7.5 focal ratio. This does make it difficult to pinpoint and track night sky objects. It’s a simple mount you have to move manually. And on the tripod sits an Altazimuth telescopic mount. The telescope comes with a sturdy aluminum tripod. This helps you view more obscure objects or more detail on the moon’s surface. And you get a Barlow eyepiece that gives you an extra 3x magnification. You have two standard Plossl options with 10mm and 25mm focal lengths, respectively. It’s great for viewing the Milky Way and wider sections of the night sky. In practical terms, that gives you a fairly wide field of vision. It’s a refracting telescope with a 600mm focal length and an objective lens diameter of 80 mm. It also comes at a more-than-reasonable price. It’s lightweight, easy to set up, and gives you a great night sky view. The HEXEUM Portable Astronomical Refracting Telescope is great if you want one you can move around with. But it’s still portable for trips into the country to avoid light pollution. It is one of the heavier telescopes on our list. And the central leg stabilizer provides more support and reduces vibrations. The Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ comes with a stainless steel tripod. And the companion “Starry Night” software helps you learn about the night sky. Simple turn the knobs to follow your subjects on their axes.įinding your subject is also easy with the StarPointer red dot finderscope. But once in position, you can track stars and planets as they move across the sky. Setting it up can be a bit tricky for first-timers. With the manual weighted equatorial telescope mount, tracking celestial objects is easy. And remember, with eyepieces, a shorter focal length gives you better magnification but a narrower field of view. One has a 10mm focal length and the other 20mm. The AstroMaster 130EQ comes with two eyepieces, which increases the versatility.

But you can also see star clusters, nebulae, and sections of the Milky Way. You can view planets, the moon, or double stars. As a reflecting telescope, you find the eyepiece near the front end of the main barrel.Ī focal ratio of f/8.7 gives you a medium-wide field of view and strong magnification. It’s a Newtonian reflector telescope with a 144 mm mirror to create the image. And it gives you stunning glimpses into the sky above! But it’s simple enough for older teens and adults, even with no prior experience.

The Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ Newtonian is the best amateur telescope on the market. If you buy a product through one of our referral links we will earn a commission (without costing you anything). We then look at each telescope in more detail in the following section. If you’re ready to look at telescopes, you can see a quick rundown of the best budget telescopes below. You can skip to the buyer’s guide if you need more information. If you’re unfamiliar with the more technical telescope terminology, we explain at the end of the article. There are also specifications like focal length, aperture, and focal ratio. The optical design is always noteworthy when buying one. We can look at the stars without remortgaging the house!Īs well as price, there are other things you need to look for in a telescope. But others give you plenty of change from your $500 bill. Some only just come in under that threshold. But all the telescopes we recommend are below $500 brand new. The prices of the telescopes we look at do vary. But that doesn’t mean normal people like us can’t look at the stars. Professional astronomy telescopes cost thousands of dollars. The best budget telescope is affordable but still gives you an incredible glimpse into the cosmos above us.

Orion starblast 4.5 eq reflector