Deciding What Size Telescope to Buy

Video Transcript

"Making a decision to buy the right type of telescope is very important and quite often we are tempted as you walk down the aisle of a big box store to buy that long skinny telescope and take it home and it has got a good price and it has got those big pictures on it and most have big pictures on it of nebulas and planets on it and stuff but that is probably not a good telescope to by because the mount is usually spindly and weak and the telescope itself is not always the best quality. It can be decent but not the best quality. To be serious about astronomy your first telescope should probably be about a 3 inch diameter refractor or a 6 inch diameter reflector. Those are general purpose telescopes and if you stay on the hobby you will certainly want to get a larger one later but if you decide for whatever the reason to get out of the hobby you will be able to sell these very easily if you wanted to. But the 3 inch refractor or a 6 inch reflector will show you thousands of objects in the night sky many of them in great detail, especially the moon and the planets and some of the brighter double stars and clusters in the sky and quite a few galaxies too. So 3 inch refractor, or a 6 inch reflector on a simple mount is sturdy. Make sure when you let go of it it doesn't wiggle and shake a lot. If it is a sturdy mount and you like the views then that would be a good bet to go on with a scope like that."