telecopes for sale

Telescopes

explore the wonders of the stars

Thanks to popular TV programmes such as Sky at Night and Star Gazing Live, astronomy is a popular hobby. We have a great selection of telescopes that are suitable for beginners to intermediate astronomers.

Discover the secrets of the night skies with one of these great value telescopes.

Browse our selection of astronomical telescopes for sale:

 

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What are the main types of home telescopes?

cassegrain telescope

There are three main types of telescopes that are popular at home:

Refractor: This is a simple telescope using lens. They offer high definition and are popular for Moon gazing and looking at the near planets. You can recognise these as the eye piece is at the end of the telescope Light simply goes in the front lens and down to the eye piece.
For home use these tend to have objective lens of between 70mm and 120mm. Larger lens refractors are available but costs increase substantial because of the cost of producing and polishing the lens. These are maintenance free.
A refractor telescope of 70mm is a good starter scope for a child who wants to look at the craters of the Moon and recognise the closer planets. It is possible to see the moons of Jupiter and rings of Saturn with a relatively inexpensive 70mm refractor.

Reflector: These offer good value for the home user as mirrors are cheaper to produce than lenses. The light enters the objective and is reflected back up the tube to the eye-piece. You can recognise these from the simple straight tube shape and the eye piece being near the top of the tube by the front lens.
These offer good value and can be used to get good images of the Moon, near planets and the larger deep space objects depending on your objective size and magnification. A budget reflector telescope of around £150 will give you a good image of larger deep-space objects and good images of Saturn's rings.
Reflectors need the occasional maintenance by requiring re-alignment of the mirrors.

Cassegrain or compound: These are relatively new for optical telescopes having been invented in the 1930's. They are priced between the reflector and refractor scopes as they use both lens and mirrors. They tend to be shorter than reflectors and make ideal table-top telescopes as they are also lighter.
You can recognise the Cassegrain telescope as the objective lens has a silver coloured disc in the centre. The light enters the objective lens gets reflected by a mirror at the base and reflected again by the silver disc in the lens back down to the eye-piece at the base of the telescope.
The Cassegrain is able to see deep-space objects as well as get good images of the Moon and the near planets and their rings and moons.
Theses scopes need occasional maintenance but are ideal for when space is limited.

5 essential telescope accessories for beginners

essential accessories for tellescopes

When you buy a new telescope you may not get everything you need, even beginner kits may not have the essential accessories. This is our 5 top accessories that any new astronomer needs in their kit.

  • Star map or app
    Fortunately there are plenty of free astronomy apps for both Apple and Android. They can be a great help in learning your way around the night sky. Some of the better ones are even free. To help learning a wall chart can also be useful.

  • Filters, especially Moon 
    When looked through a telescope the Moon can be pretty bright and you can lose a lot of delicate features because of glare. It's always worth buying a filter kit to help bring out the best features of the Moon. You can also get solar filters for eclipses and coloured filters which help with getting better contrasts when looking at deep-space objects.

  • Cleaning kit
    Having a good quality cleaning set is essential to gt the most out of your telescope. Lens and mirrors need to be cleaned on a regular basis. You can use a fine brush or air to remove a lot of particles. You then need special optics cleaning fluid which removes grease and residues. A good quality lens cleaner will also have an anti-bacterial component to help stop bacteria damaging the lens or mirror.

  • Finder scope
    A finder scope is really essential even for beginners to help line up your main scope into the section of the sky or Moon you want to explore. Most telescope come with a finder scope but some of the cheaper ones do not. you might also want to upgrade your finder scope to one with a laser dot to help accuracy.

  • Red light headlamp
    It takes time for your eyes to adjust to darkness. If you have spent an hour getting used to the dark and you need to do some work on the telescope than a red-light head lamp is perfect. The red light keeps your eyes attuned to the darkness and the headband keeps both hands free for whatever needs doing.

 

Educational toy to help kids to learn about the universe

Telescopes are not really toys but they are great for children. Telescopes can spark a life-long interest in science, engineering and technology. A child with a telescope can learn all about the important STEM subjects at home while having fun.

A simple telescope at home could lead a student to want to become a space scientist or space engineer. A child can easily get the 'bug' to carefully explore the Moon and it's craters or discover the rings around the planet Saturn. From there they can start to spot the International Space Center as it orbits the planet. On occasions due to the orbit they will be able to clearly see the solar panels expanding out from the body.

Give a child a telescope as  a gift and a whole new future could open up for them as they look beyond the stars.

Top tips for buying a telescope for beginners

If you need some advice about buying a telescope for the first time this video is a great help. Made by the people at Orion Optics it covers some of the major points to think about.

It's possible to buy a basic 70 mm reflector scope suitable for a novice for under £50.00. This is perfect for a child to start their exploration of the Moon, it's craters and some of the closer planets.

Moving up and a beginner reflector scope that will allow good viewing of planets and some of the brighter deep space items can be bought for around £100 - £150.