How to choose Telescope for Beginners? (Precise Version)

Telescope is one of the finest, underrated and remarkable inventions, according to me. It's a bridge between known and unknown Universe. You don't need any electricity or battery power to run this. You just see through it whenever you want.

Hi, I am Yatin. I love stargazing and astrophotography. I am not professional but I learnt and read a lot about telescopes when I actually decided to buy one for myself. Now I thought of sharing my process to help you out with the same.

You will read or might have already read lengthy paragraphs to understand the mechanism of the telescope and then have seen various options to get confused. If Yes, then here is my precise suggestion for you.

First identify your purpose

A. Observing night sky only

i. Want to see planets

ii. Want to see distant objects

B. Astrophotography

C. I don't know yet

A. Observing night sky only

(i) If you want to observe night sky and you want to see planets like Jupiter, Saturn and its rings etc then this could be my preference order

1. Maksutov-Cassegrain(Schemidt/Compound)

2. Refractors

3. Reflectors

“To be very specific, I would recommend you to start with a Mak-cass 90mm or 102mm with table top mount.”

(ii) Now, if your preference is to observe distant objects (which is very rare in beginners)

Then this would be my preference order

1. Refractors

2. Reflectors

3. Mak-Cass(Compound)

with an equatorial mount for stability.

“To be very specific buy a Refractor with 80mm aperture and 400mm focal length i.e f/5 focal ratio with equatorial mount”

B. Astrophotography

Let’s talk about the second case, if you want to do Astrophotography and feel the passion for it then I want to let you know that telescope will remain the same as option A. But the main difference will be the mount for that telescope for steadier shot and to counter Earth's rotation. Mounts will start from Rs. 20k in India but a good mount will cost you around 40k. Keep in mind I am talking here for beginners only. There is a whole different game if you take astrophotography seriously later.

Astrophotography is an expensive hobby/profession and requires a lot of hard work but I want to add one thing here, if you are passionate about anything then you can do things with ease. So, Good luck if you are interested in astrophotography.

“For Astrophotography I would suggest you to buy only a good equatorial GoTo mount”

Where to buy telescopes, mount and accessories in India?

C. I don't know yet

If you are curious about planets, stars and space stuff and you do not know where to start or you are not sure what you really want to do from the above mentioned two options but just want to buy a telescope and looking for a genuine recommendation to start with. So, here is my best call

"90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain with

table top is the best way to go"

90mm Mak-Cass will cost you around 20k in India. If your budget is more than 20k then you can go for a bigger aperture. Many options are available from 90 to 180mm. You will love your first purchase.

Good to know

Here, I want to briefly explain two major factors for better understanding of a telescope. Aperture and Focal Ratio. Simple rule for Aperture, the bigger the better. Second factor is Focal Ratio. It is Focal Length divided by Aperture. Higher focal ratio (f/7 or higher) is good for planetary observation and lower focal ratio (less than f/7) is good for faint distant celestial objects.

Also, if you don't know the difference between Refractor, Reflector and Mak-Cass/Compound Telescope. I will cover this in my next topic. Stay tuned. Thanks.