A practical, expert guide to choosing your first telescope—aperture vs magnification, mounts, eyepieces, and setup tips for visual observing and imaging.
Beginner Telescope Buying Guide: Choose the Right Scope Read More »
Choose the best telescope eyepieces: AFOV, eye relief, exit pupil, field stop, aberrations, Barlows, cleaning, and buying tips for visual astronomy.
The Ultimate Eyepiece Guide: AFOV, Exit Pupil, Choice Read More »
Stop dew and power your rig all night: heater straps, controllers, 12V batteries, wiring, fuses, and best practices for visual and astrophotography.
Telescope Dew Control and Power in the Field Read More »
Collimate Newtonian, SCT, and RC telescopes with confidence. Tools, step-by-step alignment, star testing, and troubleshooting for sharp views and images.
Master Telescope Collimation and Star Testing Read More »
Learn eyepiece types, AFOV vs TFOV, exit pupil, eye relief, 1.25 vs 2-inch, Barlows, zooms, and how to build the best eyepiece set for any telescope and budget.
Telescope Eyepieces: The Complete Buyer’s Guide Read More »
Stop dew from ruining nights: physics, dew shields, heaters, controllers, cooling fans, power planning, and best practices for every telescope type.
Dew Control and Thermal Management for Telescopes Read More »
Choose the right telescope mount: alt-az vs equatorial, manual vs GoTo, payload capacity, tracking, polar alignment, periodic error, guiding, and setup tips.
Telescope Mounts: Alt-Az vs EQ, GoTo, Polar Alignment Read More »
Choose and use eyepieces like a pro: AFOV, exit pupil, field stop, eye relief, 1.25 vs 2-inch, Barlows vs telecentric extenders, sample kits, and pro tips.
Telescope Eyepieces: Complete Buyer’s & User Guide Read More »
The Dobsonian telescope has gone through a wide variety of iterations and innovations since it was first invented at the dawn of the Space Age, as well as a great deal of criticism. However, today Dobsonians dominate observing fields, are common even at astronomical observatories, and are widely considered the best beginner telescopes, if not
What is a Dobsonian Telescope and How Does it Work? Find Out! Read More »
Sky-Watcher’s HEQ5 Pro mount is arguably the single best equatorial mount you can buy for astrophotography. It’s not too expensive, it can carry a variety of instruments, and it performs well enough out of the box that it won’t drive you crazy. The HEQ5 Pro is portable enough to serve as a glorified star tracker
Sky Watcher HEQ5 Pro Review: An A+ Equatorial Mount Read More »
The Orion SkyQuest XT12i is a massive instrument designed for demanding observers, and one of the less expensive 12” Dobsonians available, mainly due to its simple build. The XT12i costs only a bit more than its non-computerized competitors, but its Intelliscope mount makes it a bit easier to use – and is a bit more
Orion SkyQuest XT12i Review: A Dob at a Great Price Read More »
Celestron’s StarSense Explorer line is the latest in Celestron’s revolving door of low-cost, oddly designed and often computerized beginner telescopes. Celestron has previously tried to make using a telescope as easy as possible in the form of the NexStar telescopes (which sadly lost their extremely simple Level North alignment feature in a patent lawsuit, and
Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 102 Review Read More »