Telescope Buying Guide

10 Responses to “How can I know that telescope can see planets and stars?”

1. richard r Says:
   July 5th, 2010 at 12:06 pm

   look up,when its dark,focus the tele.and if you see something good…if not,well you bought junk. richard r

2. talr Says:
   July 7th, 2010 at 6:35 pm

   You should first ask yourself whether you have too much light pollution in your area to see anything of substance - most urban areas do.
   If you can get to a really dark area, you can get a reasonable telescope, and if you know what you’re doing, see some pretty neat stuff.

   To see the close/big planets you don’t need a gigantic or terribly expensive telescope. You should look for a good quality telescope with good aperture, which indicates how much light the telescope gets. Good focal length combined with relatively high aperture will give you enough light and enough magnification to see some details. talr

3. Bobby Says:
   July 10th, 2010 at 3:44 am

   Join an astronomy club and ask the members to advise you
   on telescope purchase Bobby

4. RickB Says:
   July 10th, 2010 at 1:14 pm

   The most important single factor is the diameter of the lens in the front. (If the telescope is a “reflector” type, use the diameter of the mirror in the back.) If the diameter is about 2 inches or greater, then you should be able to see some interesting things, including:
   * Mountains and craters on the moon;
   * The four large moons of Jupiter;
   * The rings of Saturn;
   * The phases of Venus (and maybe Mercury);
   * Uranus and Neptune (but only as tiny dots);
   * A couple of the larger asteroids (but only as tiny dots);
   * With at least 4 inches, you can sometimes make out surface features on Mars during the times when Mars is very close to Earth.

   Any telescope will allow you to see MORE stars, but they won’t look any bigger; they’ll still look like tiny points of light. Star clusters like the Pleiades look quite nice through a small telescope.

   You may also be able to see some of the brighter galaxies and nebulae; although they’ll be extremely dim. The pictures you see of those in books were made using very long exposures to gather a lot of light: they just don’t look like that “in person.” RickB

5. Alan Says:
   July 13th, 2010 at 3:37 am

   It depends on which one you are buying, the bigger the scope the better, and if you spend peanuts expect a toy.

   You will get more sensible answers if you say what your budget is or what you have shortlisted Alan

6. PAULH Says:
   July 13th, 2010 at 3:47 pm

   Join an astronomy club first. Any cheap dept store, or QVC telescope is junk and don’t waste your money. PAULH

7. GeoffG Says:
   July 15th, 2010 at 9:57 pm

   Any telescope can see planets and stars. Even without a telescope, you can see planets and stars.

   Probably a better question is whether a telescope can show satisfyingly detailed views of planets — stars just look like stars no matter how much you magnify them. The real reason for using a telescope is to see fine detail in planets and faint deep sky objects. For both of these you need _aperture_: a large enough diameter lens or mirror. I usually recommend 150 mm (6 inches) as the minimum I’ve found to give really satisfying views, though 250 mm (10 inches) would be better.

   It’s wrong to argue “I’m only a beginner, so I should start with a small telescope.” Beginners need all the help they can get, and that mans aperture.

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

   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:

   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:

   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). GeoffG

8. Ron Says:
   July 17th, 2010 at 11:39 pm

   any telescope really, u can see the planets with your plain unaided eye or binoculars. i have an astromaster 70 refractor telescope. its good for viewing planets. saturns rings are clear and jupiters moons are visable. try to get something with the largest aperature u can. the wider the telescope the more you’ll see Ron

9. Bullseye Says:
   July 20th, 2010 at 9:44 am

   You can see all of the bright planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, easily without a telescope!

   and– stars are always just pinpoints of light no matter what amateur telescope you use.

   This scope would show you all eight of the planets, and hundreds of other objects in the sky. Bullseye

10. Chris Says:
    July 21st, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    If you’re uninterested in deep space objects (Nebulae, Clusters, Galaxies) and want it solely for planetary and stellar (i’m assuming observing binary/triple stars), your money would be best spent on a higher quality, decent sized, high focal ratio refractor. Inch for inch they’ll give you better views of those objects.

    That said, the best beginners scope (which will give you nice views of those objects, just not AS good as a high quality ‘fractor) is a good sized reflector on a Dobsonian mount. You can get a lot more bang for your buck with one of these, as bigger aperture scopes can resolve fainter objects (such as DSOs). A 6 or 8 inch dob is really the best bargin to start with.

    I could narrow down some recommendations if I knew your budget. Chris

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