What Telescope NOT! To Buy...

If there is one time of year were telescopes are sold the most is the months leading up to Christmas, and unfortunately amongst the good there are the TERRIBLE! also known as HOBBY KILLERS... So in this video I will show you the telescopes to avoid and more importantly the ones worth spending your well earned money on.

Thank you for watching don't forget to subscribe as I do regular videos for the new astronomer.. Clear skies all :)
The names of telescopes to look out for
SkyWatcher.
Celestron.
Orion.
Bresser.
Mead.
SVbony.
UK Telescope suppliers

[ChrisJakins]

I got my daughter a scope very similar to one of these trash scopes. Very poor all round. Wobbly and naff. The eyepieces are 100% plastic with a field of view close to nothing. The moon looked ok. The best view we ever got was one lucky night looking at Jupiter and its moons but they were very very tiny and not well focused. Still my daughter persisted and has looked through that rubbish scope so many times. We are talking years of battling with this thing. It wasn’t a hobby killer for her. She doesn’t know it yet but her birthday gift next week is a good quality 8” dob complete with some fairly nice eyepieces. It should open up so many possibilities for what she can see.

[badfuturez]

Thank you for your advice. I'm 14 and working on being an astronomer when I'm older and selecting my first telescope is kinda hard and I found your videos online. Keep doing what you do, cheers!

[ericastier]

I am watching your channel with interest, i am not in astronomy but it helps depression to listen to you somehow.

[martinlegg]

Good work Jason. If only I’d seen a video like this 14 months ago. Yep! I bought a trash telescope off Amazon. Fortunately it didn’t put me off. Quite the opposite. I actually got round to writing a review on it, just this week, advising how bad it was. Wish I’d sent it back back then but thought I was getting ok views. Yeah right. Got a skywatcher Skyhawk in February and the difference was amazing. These cheap telescopes should be banned. This video should, and I hope, save people wasting they’re money. Thanks again. Great video 👌🏻👍🏻

[konserv]

I have bought my first Meade Infinity 70mm in a thrift store for $40.
It was without eyepieces, without rod for an azimuthal fork mount and someone played with it and wedge from focusing mechanism was inside the tube.
I fixed the focusing mechanism and your videos helped me to choose decent Plossl eyepiece and it works awesome! I did had only an hour without clouds since buying and moon looks very clear and detailed!

[jeremyt]

Celestron, Meade, Explore Scientific, and Hi-Point are some great scopes from around $100.00 to over $25, 000 US dollars. I own a Celestron computerized 114 and 70mm travel scope. I have an explore Scientific 60mm travel scope and for terrestrial views I use a 50mm Tasco. They are all nice beginner scopes for sure.

[neiltonks]

I started with a Celestron travel scope, one look at the moon and i was hooked. I then bought a Celestron 114 newt. I soon out grew that so i bought a Segan 6" newt. After a chat with a gentleman at work, he GAVE me an 8" Meade dob. the mirrors were totally trashed. The primary had gone pretty milky around the edges and no matter how I cleaned it, it still wasn't right. So I put on my big boy pants, stripped it all down, and sent the mirrors away for recoating. Who knew that it would cost as much, if not more than a new 8" dob!.
Anyways to cut a short story long, i now have a eq6r pro mount and an 8" edge hd. Its very easy to get hooked on this amazing past time

PS, I also converted the 8" dob to fit on my eq6 mount!

[edwardhyd]

Good advice, I was given a 76700 with the hyugen eyepieces, exactly like the first you showed.
RVO in Rotherham sorted me out with a Sky-Watcher 130m and it’s saved my interested!
Keep up the good work!

[andreigaming]

HELLO! I REALLY APRECIATE THET YOU DID THIS VID. BECAUSE THERE ARE PEOPLE/PARENT WICH ARE BUYING VERY CHEAP TELESCOPES WITHOUT INFORMATING ABOUT THE BRAND OR INFORMATING ABOUT THE QUALITY THEY BUY A 30/300MM TELESCOPE WICH IS PRETTY BAD! THEY DONT EVEN THINK HOW MUCH THEY MISINFORMATION WILL COST ...AT LEAST THATS MY SITUATION NOW 1 YEAR AGO THEY BUYED ME A 30/300MM ”REFRACTOR” FROM AN UNKNOW BRAND AND THEN I WASNT GIVING UP (AND NOT LETING DOWN RICKROLL) AND I BUYED AAN 76/700 REFLECTOR FROM BRESSER, IT WAS A VERY GOOD TLESCOPE BUT, IT WAS COMING WITH A DUCKIN 3X BARLOW LENS AN A 4MM LENS WICH IS TERRIBLE SO NOW I HAVE A MAKSUTOV SKYWATCHER 1500/127 WITH A 10MM EYEPIECE AND A 25 MM ONE WITH A GO TO MOUNT...PRETTY HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS

[yobaby]

Jason, I really enjoyed this video. I got a Bushnell telescope as a 10th year gift from an old employer a decade ago, and I learned at first light that I was happy I hadn't actually spent my money on it; .965 Huygens eyepieces, cheesy tripod, bend til it breaks to align "finder scope" with no optics in it, etc. So when I decided to actually get into the hobby three or four years ago, I already knew to only spend my money on quality products.

I enjoyed the video so much the first time, four or five hours earlier today, that I just watched it a second time for good measure.

[nodrogawson]

Your spot on there Jason.
I fell once for a crappier than crap 500x all plastic thing, and couldn't even see the sun, never mind the stars and planets.
I had set it up arse about face and then realised l was looking at the ground.

[waltonsimons]

I have to say this, for the first example used, you'll see those little (usually 76mm) reflector scopes everywhere for around the same price.
They're actually quite alright for what they are, a 50 bucks telescope, bought one just to see what it could do, combine it with a reasonable eyepiece and you could easily see Jupiter's moons, and some of the banding.
I've even seen people put bigger mirrors in them, seeing how the tube is actually quite roomy for what's inside.
Sure they're pretty much 'toy quality', but compared to those awful refractor toy grade telescopes from the past, quite decent, definitely less of a hobby killer for kids.

[epic_playz]

I own the Orion 130ST Reflector Telescope and that is a little on the higher side for beginner budget but I suggest it 👍

[mcdon]

When I was a kid, my parents bought me a refractor (that wasn't cheap, but also wasn't good) with a fixed eyepiece, and a sliding tube to alter magnification. The moon was about the only thing you could get a decent view of.

Years later, they bought me a 4" reflector from Argos. Again, not cheap, but also not very good. When the box comes covered in photos of deep sky objects you'll never be able to see using the scope, you know it's bad.

Many years later, I bought an old but good Meade 10" SCT. Amazing scope (although I've managed to misplace the large box of gubbins I need to run it 🤦‍♂️).

Bought a cracking wee Meade ETX a couple of years ago, and for the money, was a cracking buy. Think it was under £300, with a solid tripod, decent optics, a few eyepieces, the Autostar controller, and all in proper transport boxes/bags. It's easy to transport, and it all hooks up to run off the laptop.

The only reason it doesn't get used as much as it should is down to work and weather. Can't do much about those 🤦‍♂️

[bronson]

I had a cheap plastic one bought from woolworths in 1988 - i cld see Jupiters Moons with it! It was amazing - it also had a plastic 35mm thread for a SLR camera! I some how lost the telescope, can never remember the name, but it got me hooked. One could argue that workmanship/quality 40yrs ago was light years head of the rubbish today.

[mikD]

I have just bought a 152mm (6" in old money) Bresser refractor with correct mount and tripod. It weighs a lot. I'm now in my 60s. Trip one-get out tripod, step-2 get out telescope, step-3 try and mount the bugger, step-4 have a rest, step-5 its started raing. Repeat steps 3-1 in reverse.

[db]

So your first two examples of telescopes to buy are the celestron 130EQ, which from what I can see is on all of the lists of telescopes to not buy (i.e. hobbykillers, there is even a subreddit not to buy this). I'm checking this as I was just gifted a 114EQ. As its not too late to send back, i'm considering having this done based on feedback, even though it is a gift.

[larkinsen]

I think the best telescope for a beginner that wants to observe the sky and also do astrophotography is a small APO refractor doublet or triplet with a small focal length, a DSLR camera and a stable EQ mount.That is if you have a good budget.Or if you just want to observe and learn the stars just buy a good binocular 10x50 with Porro lens and an astronomy book for beginners.Reading combined with practice is the best way to step in this wonderful hobby.But that is just my opinion.A reflector with an Dobsonian mount can be the best setup for a beginner but it has to be frequently colimated so for a beginner to get into something like that can lead to losing interest.Keep up the good work.

[benume]

well done mate. Loved you video and others including how to work your way through the EQ mount and polar alignment etc. Now I got game! Ta mate!

[gernoam]

Night Vision telescope 🤣🤣, I love your videos and you are a nice and smart person! you inspired me to buy me first telescope which is a 8'' Dob Newtonian, Thank you for the amazing videos and keep it up!