How to Choose Your First Telescope

A huge thank you if you choose to help out!!

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**Telescopes**

**Mounts**

**Cameras/Astrophotography**

**Eyepieces**

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**Accessories**

**Binoculars**

[smalloptics]

Gone are the days been a 13yo lad staying up late with matchsticks proping open my eyes waiting for the Sky At Night to start and the words of wisdom from the late great Sir Patrick Moore....Now we've got YouTube :-) Great advice pal.

[avt_astro]

Yeah My 76mm Mini Dob Is Amazing For Visual and I have Also Done photography👍🔭

[SpaceFactsWax]

Thanks for sharing. I got the opportunity to view a rocket launch in 2018. Unbelievable experience. I shared a pretty cool montage of the trip to my page.

[MyClassicify]

good one sir chris. 😎
i booked a herritage 150P still not arrived... expected Oct2020. So it is general visual astronomy, is this suitable to use in city area? (right in the center of 35km radius of light pollution.) with light pollution filter will help? which type of filter suitable 150P?

[TheUrbanAstronomer]

Great video covering all the basics Chris!!

[JJherne]

Really informative video and channel as well. I've subscribed. A noob question perhaps: is there such a thing as a single telescope able to cover a variety of scenarios - planetary viewing, deep sky objects and have the ability to attach a dslr for imaging such objects if desired? Viewing is the primary goal here but I do have a passion for photography already and can easily see myself moving into imaging as well.

[Nottsboy]

There are a wide range of telescopes for beginners! nice upload 👌🔭

[freeman]

Easy; first scope 200mm (8") Dobsonian Reflector. Nuff said!

[ElderberryLims]

Hi Chris, enjoyed the video. I came here after trying to watch some reviews of telescopes that I was considering as a Christmas present for my wife. We both enjoy looking at the night's sky and she has said how she would love a telescope. I used to use binoculars as a boy but neither of us have any real experience whatsoever. Looking for some advise on what would be the best telescope for our situation, basically I'm pretty sure that photography wouldn't interest her and it would be more the opportunity to see things that you can't see with the naked eye basically. I'm wondering whether its worth stepping up from something that is around 170 - 200 pounds or not. Would be happy to pay maybe 300 or 350 but not sure if worth it. What would you recommend for identifying what we are looking for would this best be a book or using technology? I think the enjoyment would be to be able to see more detail and know what we are looking at! TIA

[bushcraftandastronomer.]

Hi Chris. Great video to watch and it's interesting what you says! I started out with a pair of binoculars and saw many deep sky objects and there are some you can see without binoculars I found out when I was first using binoculars. In 1989 I went to Charles Frank camera shop in Edinburgh and saw the Vixen custom 80m refractor and I thought about getting it and I spoke to Sir Patrick Moore on phone when he phoned me and I told him about it and he says it's a good telescope and I bought it in 1994 April because I wanted to see the comet shoemaker levy 9 event so I bought it and I saw many deep sky objects and I viewed Orion nebula and it looked a bit green colour but nice view. I'm glad Sir Patrick Moore helped me decide. He was the only one I really learned Astronomy from. My new little setup for astrophotography and deep sky imaging as I wanted everything portable and I'm glad now I've got that setup and planetary camera. It's peaple like you that has helped me so much and I'm going to get the most from this little setup! I've got a question with this little setup how faint can it photograph deep sky object? What's the faintest deep sky objects can I photograph? The weather here has been pretty bad with alot of rain so no clear nights so far. I'm thinking of attaching my Hauwei p20 smartphone to my star tracker and see how good the shots come out. I wish you clear skies this autumn and winter!

[DagonFF]

I ordered a 150p Heritage for overall versatility. heard that 150p is for example to unstable to handle magnification higher than around 150x. I was planning to get a 3x Barlow lens to do some short imaging of planets and moons. But it seems to have problems with short focuser as well. Do you think that in terms of mount stability and general optics would the skyliner 150p f8 have been a far better choice? Thank you for your videos!

[chrislj]

I'm wanting to buy an 8" SCT but there's just nothing available here in the U.S. due to the virus hoax, and it's very frustrating. But I guess with all of the insanity going on here that's the least of my problems, lol.

[ohwell]

102 mm refractor on a EQ mount and start the adventure instead of a DOB because some people do not understand how to collimate those. A refractor is simple and can be used for other uses too. DOB's are great but not for a beginner. Bad advice.