telescope with lcd screen free sample

This electronic telescope lets you program it to find objects in the night sky automatically, saving you the effort of reading star charts and manuals.

The Celestron NexStar 5SE—our pick for the best amateur telescope—is a Schmidt-Cassegrain scope, which means it uses both lenses and mirrors in a relatively compact package. This telescope has a primary 5-inch mirror—big enough for a light-gathering capacity that yields crisp images of some of the best objects in our solar system, from Saturn’s rings to Jupiter’s cloud bands. And it provides sufficient power to introduce you to objects in the deep sky. The NexStar 5SE operates on a fully computerized system and gives you a handheld controller to guide it. Instead of fumbling to read star charts and align the telescope manually, with the press of a button you can align and focus your telescope on a myriad of celestial objects. Unlike with some of the NexStar 5SE’s competitors, this controller worked flawlessly in our tests, offering micro adjustments and responsive tracking with the attached controller system. This scope weighs 15 pounds, making it very portable relative to other options out there. So you should have no problem packing it into a trunk and setting it up on location.

If you don’t want an electronic GPS function, the Astronomers Without Borders OneSky Reflector Telescope offers the most scope for the money. (Unlike our top pick, this telescope won’t automatically find the specific celestial bodies you seek.) One reason you may not want a manual telescope: You have to collimate (align) the telescope’s mirrors, and if you aren’t aware this has to be done, it can be tedious or frustrating. With that in mind, some of our experts told us they preferred (and even advised) learning the ins and outs of astronomy on a manual telescope. So if you’re willing to put in the effort, you’ll become a smarter stargazer. Like our top pick, this Newtonian-style reflector telescope has a 5-inch mirror, but it’s designed to sit on a tabletop rather than on a tripod, so it works best if you have a picnic table or other support to set it on. The mirrors expand and collapse, making this model even more amenable to being stored indoors. With this model, we easily spotted Saturn’s rings and Jupiter and its moons.

The traditional Dobsonian telescope (a type of instrument sometimes referred to as a “light bucket”) is all about light gathering, and the images we saw through the lens of the Sky-Watcher Classic Dobsonian Telescope were awe-inspiring. The 8-inch mirror, which captures the light, is significantly larger than that of our top pick. That means you get crisper, clearer images and are able to see fainter objects that are farther away. The trade-off is that this scope is huge: Loading it into a car or even moving it around the yard is a chore, so it’s best suited for folks who have a dedicated space for it at home.

This inexpensive telescope integrates smartphone app connectivity in a clever way, opening up the skies for beginners. It’s best for viewing celestial objects located closer to Earth.

The Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ comes with a dead-simple smartphone app that highlights the evening’s most interesting viewing opportunities and shows you how to find them in the sky. This scope is lightweight and portable, with an easy-to-position alt-azimuth mount. However, it’s a refractor-style telescope with a smaller, 3.15-inch aperture, which means it’s best suited to viewing celestial objects located closer to Earth.

The best telescopes for astrophotography open up the heavens above us in an exciting new way. Introducing us to new worlds beyond what can be seen with the naked eye, they"re ideal for both stargazing enthusiasts and those who want to capture the cosmos with their cameras.

So which model should you buy? Well, that depends a lot on your level of experience. If you"re a beginner, we recommend setting your sights on an inclusive package that lets you try a bit of everything, from general observing to afocal astrophotography. These instruments often come with a tripod, mount, eyepieces, finderscope, and, often, a smartphone adapter.

If your needs are slightly more advanced, you should consider whether you"re a deep-sky or Solar System imager. The aperture (or objective lens) of the telescope will be your guide on whether it"s capable of capturing "faint fuzzies" or just enough to make the planets and lunar surface pop.

The focal ratio is also an essential number to consider – fast telescopes with ratios of f/4 or f/5 are great for wide-field and deep-sky imaging, while slow instruments with ratios of f/11 to f/15 will offer dazzling high-power images of the Moon and planets. Meanwhile, the kind of mount you use will determine whether long-exposure astrophotography is possible.

Luckily, there are so many great options for the best telescope for astrophotography that users are often spoilt for choice. This means that you can figure out exactly which product will work best for you and your needs.

So whether you"re a beginner searching for a budget telescope to help explore your new hobby, or you"re an experienced astrophotographer looking to upgrade your kit, we"ve listed the very best telescopes for astrophotography below.

We"ll start with the best-refracting telescopes, followed by the best-reflecting telescopes. If you"re not sure of the difference, skip ahead to this explainer.

If you"re after the best telescope for astrophotography and serious stargazing, we recommend the Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ, which offers a great package for the slightly more experienced amateur astronomer – especially given that it comes with a CG-3 equatorial mount, which requires more practice and patience to use over the basic alt-azimuth.

The equatorial mount assists with tracking, which is essential for longer exposure astrophotography. Meanwhile, its decent aperture will show a good amount of detail on solar system and deep-sky targets. However, in order to get the very best from the optical system – which is a Newtonian reflector – you"ll need to collimate the setup. This process can be tricky for beginners, but with practice, it"s easily achieved – especially given Celestron has supplied a manual that walks you through the process. The optical performance is very good, with no major visual defects visible and we enjoyed the stunning contrast and clarity in the field of view.

It features a computerized mount, which enables the astronomer to spend more time imaging and observing instead of spending huge amounts of time tracking down targets in the night sky: at the simple touch of a button on the included hand control, you can lock onto your chosen object and get stargazing right away. What"s more, the SkyAlign technology is a breeze to use and, in our experience, aligned the instrument within minutes.

The telescope"s design is exquisite given the cost and we"re impressed with the optical performance. Given its focal ratio of f/10, the NexStar 5SE is a fast telescope, so it"s best suited to lunar and planetary astrophotography. We found views and resulting images clear and crisp, especially craters along the Moon"s terminator where night meets day. Beginners and seasoned astrophotographers will also enjoy picking out detail on the surface of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; we highly recommend accessorizing this telescope with a range of filters for optimum results.

The StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is a fast telescope due to its focal ratio of f/5 and focal length of 650mm. That makes it better suited to low-power views of the night sky. We enjoyed a selection of planetary and deep-sky targets in the field of view.

Before we began observing, we downloaded the StarSense App, which is supplied for free with the telescope. We encountered no problems installing it onto our iPhone 11 and found the interface to be extremely simple to navigate and use. The StarSense App is packed with planets, stars, nebulae, and galaxies to explore – so if you don"t know what to observe on your first night, there are plenty of recommendations. The app also makes short work of aligning the telescope, working accurately, and offering plenty of guidance to ensure that the skywatcher is imaging and observing within minutes.

Our first target was Mars, which shone brightly in the south east. Slewing to the Red Planet as instructed by the app, we noted the screen "zoom in", which prompted us to use the slow-motion controls (which work smoothly enough) to bring our target into focus. The fourth planet from the Sun is an impressive sight through the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ, especially when we added a 2x Barlow lens. At a magnification of 150x, Mars appears as a sharp disk with the south polar cap visible.

Testing the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ"s mettle on fainter deep-sky targets, we slewed to the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31) and the Triangulum Galaxy (Messier 33). We weren"t disappointed with the views; they were clear, and contrasty and demonstrated the reflector"s ability to collect enough light for bright observations.

This telescope is a good example of one that is well suited to a particular area of astrophotography: due to its long focal length (1500mm), it is best for observing and photographing the Moon and planets. So, if you know you"ll be studying the rings of Saturn, imaging the Moon"s mountains, craters and mare or chasing Jupiter"s Great Red Spot, then the Sky-Watcher Skymax 127 could be the instrument for you.

As we have mentioned previously, a Barlow lens will serve you well for astrophotography – this Maksutov-Cassegrain is supplied with one, pushing your magnification up by 2x and increasing your focal length for better observing and photography.

In terms of build, the overall package is of a very good quality. The optical tube assembly is a particular highlight, and we appreciated the excellent finish. The optics offered pin-sharp views of a selection of solar system targets with no coma, or other optical defects, hugely visible.

The Sky-Watcher Heritage 114P telescope, though a small package, offers some great features for those wanting a hugely portable instrument to use for astrophotography.

This reflector comes equipped with a couple of fair-quality eyepieces (10mm and 25mm), but we do recommend adding a Barlow lens to the kit to ramp up the magnification. What we can see through in the field of view, though, is sure to delight those just starting out in astronomy and astrophotography: there is a decent amount of contrast and clarity when capturing bright deep-sky targets, the planets and cratered lunar surface, especially given the reasonable price tag.

The mount provides a stable observing platform and will also track night-sky objects once located. The telescope can be slewed automatically in both axes, at five different speeds, via the mount"s electronic keypad.

Another standout feature is the Freedom-Find dual-encoder technology, which enables the telescope to be moved manually in either axis without losing its alignment or positional information. This is enormously convenient and offers great flexibility during observing sessions. The telescope also includes a Canon-D electronic shutter release cable, enabling automatic DSLR control at up to six preset positions. If you"re shopping around, or have a smaller budget, the 90mm Sky-Watcher Heritage 90P is also worth considering.

The Celestron Inspire 100AZ is our recommended telescope for the ultimate beginner, or for those on a tight budget. Given the complete package, which features a 10mm and 20mm eyepiece, erect image star diagonal, accessory tray, smartphone adapter, Starry Night Software, red LED flashlight for preserving night vision, and a StarPointer Pro red dot finderscope, you truly get more bang for your buck with the Inspire series of telescopes.

Though its mount is a basic undriven alt-azimuth design, it will still enable you to get some impressive images of the lunar surface – which is by far the best initial target to try photographing. As with the majority of instruments, the Inspire 100AZ"s optics are multicoated providing good clarity for the low price tag. Color fringing is visible in images, but this is to be expected through the optical system of a budget telescope.

While it"s famed for planetary and lunar imaging, the Sky-Watcher SkyMax-180 PRO is also capable of giving fair views of a selection of bright nebulae and galaxies, particularly those that take up a larger section of the sky – the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31) and the Orion Nebula (Messier 42) in particular are worthwhile astrophotography targets through this telescope.

A downside of the Sky-Watcher SkyMax-180 PRO is that it doesn"t come with a mount, tripod, or plenty of eyepieces, despite the hefty price tag. With any instrument, the more you accessorize, the better the views get provided the astrophotographer is respectful of the optical tube assembly"s highest useful magnification.

The Sky-Watcher Startravel 120 is a great telescope, given the price. Not only do you get a decent-sized 120mm aperture, but it also comes with a highly-respected EQ3-2 equatorial mount to make tracking a breeze. Two eyepieces and a Barlow lens are supplied in the package, along with a fair-quality tripod – although we did find the accessory tray to be fiddly to attach.

On the whole, the instrument is easy to set up and use, giving you speedy access to a wide range of targets. The mount features a DSLR shutter release port for camera control, but after our experience with it, the telescope itself is well suited to general observation and photography.

Once upon a time a telescope like the Skywatcher Evostar 120 EQ5 Pro was in the remit of advanced amateur astronomers only. Today, much lower prices have made such instruments available to many more astrophotography enthusiasts. A larger aperture, refracting telescope like this will provide a lifetime of both visual and photographic use.

The Vaonis Stellina(opens in new tab) Observation Station and Hybrid Telescope is quite unlike any other telescope you may have come across. Conventionally, these instruments make use of a finderscope and eyepieces – the futuristic Stellina has no need for these, with all of its optical and imaging prowess packed inside a futuristic design.

That means no more hunting for your accessories in the dark, although this smart piece of kit will ruin your night vision given that a smartphone with the downloadable Stellina app is used to control navigation of the night sky as well as serving as your field of view. Granted, this is a minor trade-off given that the wireless functionality means that you can observe from the comfort of your home and with up to ten other astronomers (the telescope is able to connect to multiple devices simultaneously).

The Vaonis Stellina Observation Station and Hybrid Telescope features a Sony CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) sensor, making it capable of producing 6.4MP images with a resolution of 3096 x 2080. Image formats are in JPEG and Raw, with the former readily shareable on social media.

Deep-sky objects are a joy to image through the 80mm aperture – standout candidates are the Hercules Cluster (Messier 13), the Ring Nebula (Messier 57) and the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31): all targets are visible in decent clarity. With an in-built light pollution filter and stacking engine, creating good images of the night sky is nothing short of a breeze.

If you"re new to the world of astronomical telescopes, some of the telescopes below might look a little odd. We"re all used to "refracting" telescopes, which are not unlike telephoto lenses, using a series of optical glass elements to focus an image captured at the front end into an eyepiece at the back.

But most astronomical telescopes use a "reflecting" design. Instead of a large, glass objective lens at the front, they are essentially hollow tubes with a large parabolic reflecting mirror right at the back which does the same job. This mirror reflects the image back up to the front of the tube where a secondary mirror reflects it into an eyepiece in the side of the telescope (a "Newtonian" reflector) or straight back down the tube and through a hole in the main mirror to an eyepiece in the conventional position at the back (a "Schmidt Cassegrain" reflector). There are also "Maksutov reflectors" which are a kind of hybrid, using a glass lens at the front to help focus the light for a mirror – just like "catadioptric" mirror lenses for cameras, in fact!

Neither design has any specific optical advantages, but refracting telescopes tend to be longer and heavier, and those with large objective lenses to match reflecting telescopes tend to be pretty expensive. Reflecting telescopes tend to give you more light gathering power for your money, and because they "fold" the light path within the barrel, they are a lot shorter.

Astronomical telescopes may be designed primarily for naked eye viewing, so while all the telescopes in our list can be used for astrophotography too, you will usually need an adaptor to mount a camera on the telescope. Here are a couple of links to help:

• Motorized mount: This will track the motion of the sky over time. The Earth’s rotation means celestial objects appear to slowly progress across the sky from east to west, at roughly the apparent diameter of the full moon, every two minutes. If you use a telescopes that doesn"t have a motorized mount, objects will appear to drift out of the field of view of the telescope, and you"ll constantly have to manually re-centre the target object. This means you’ll be limited to shooting short-exposure photos of the Sun, Moon and planets. A telescope with a motorized mount that tracks the sky means you"ll also be able to try your hand at long-exposure astrophotography.

• Equatorial mount: These are like regular pan and tilt tripods, but with the pan axis tilted to match the tilt of the earth. This means that you can follow stars and planets across the sky by moving your telescope on a single axis, motorized or otherwise.

• Aperture or lens size: The aperture of the telescope, or the size of its objective lens if it"s a refracting type, is important. The larger a telescope"s aperture, the more light it collects and the finer detail it can resolve. In general it is not worth considering a refracting telescope with a lens smaller than 75mm. "Aperture" here does not mean the same as "aperture" in photography. In astrophotography, what photographers call "aperture" would be called the "focal ratio".

• Refracting telescope: This is the design familiar to most people, using optical lenses to focus on celestial objects. They are essentially like supertelephoto lenses, but designed for stargazing. These are the simplest type to set up and use.

When setting out to capture images of the night sky for the first time, most people probably start by thinking what sort of camera they need, when in fact making sure you have the right sort of telescope for astrophotography is just as important, if not more so.

Whether you"re a beginner or a seasoned astronomer, it pays to do a bit of research as to what type of telescope you"ll need to photograph the night sky.

Take time to research which sort of telescope is best for your needs. What do you want your astrophotography telescope to do? Credit: Tony Rowell / Getty Images

You will also need to consider what you"re going to mount your telescope on, as it will need to track your object as it moves across the sky, and this is especially the case for deep-sky astrophotography where longer exposures are required.

Read on for our guide to everything you need to know to photograph the Moon, the planets and deep-sky objects like galaxies and nebulae, and our pick of some of the best telescopes for astrophotography.

DSLR cameras are a great choice for photographing the Moon, and because they have detachable lenses they can be connected directly to a telescope, turning the scope into the camera lens.

You can use any good quality telescope to photograph the Moon, but large aperture Schmidt-Cassegrains and Maksutov-Cassegrains are popular choices with lunar photographers.

Their longer focal lengths are suited to close-up imaging of the Moon, and compared to a high-quality refractor telescope you get a much larger aperture for your money.

Your mount should be stable and sturdy and the ability to track the Moon with a motor drive or with a Go-To mount is a must when using a high frame rate camera.

This is determined by the focal length of your telescope. As a telescope’s focal length is fixed, you might think that it can only give one magnification, but this isn’t the case.

In terms of your telescope"s focal ratio (see above), large values make the image appear dim and require lower frame rates and longer exposures, and beyond a certain value your telescope won’t be able to deliver any more useful detail.

Apertures of 8 inches or larger are best for high-resolution planetary imaging, and the ideal telescope would be a large aperture, long focal length, colour-corrected (apochromatic) refractor.

If you have a smaller telescope, don’t worry: telescopes under 8 inches in aperture are capable of capturing some detailed shots under the right conditions.

Since many deep-sky objects are rather large, smaller, short focal length telescopes with wider fields of view can be very effective, especially for regions of nebulosity that are particularly extensive.

Although the old adage "there’s no substitute for aperture" is valid for observing deep-sky objects, it’s not quite so important for imaging, as you can compensate for smaller apertures with longer exposures.

Small tracking errors are amplified by long focal lengths, so choose your telescope carefully to get the most from your system and to ensure that your mount and telescope are well matched.

If your main interest lies in galaxies and globular clusters, then their relatively small apparent size will mean that a longer focal length telescope is a good choice to photography them in detail, so consider a Schmidt-Cassegrain instrument or Newtonian reflector.

The Moon"s Crater Copernicus captured with a Nikon CoolPix 4500 camera attached to a 125mm Schmidt-Cassegrain on an equatorial mount. Credit: Ade Ashford

If your interests are polarised between planetary or lunar observations and deep-sky imaging, a Schmidt-Cassegrain with a focal reducer-field flattener will cover a lot of the astrophotography ground.

We"ve reviewed quite a lot of telescopes over the years, and below we"ve picked out some of the best astrophotography telescopes for beginners and experienced imagers alike.

The TecnoSky AG70 is designed to help astrophotographers capture images with as little fuss as possible, and it goes along way to fulfilling this brief.

Plus, considering the AG70 measures just 310mm and weighs 2kg, it"s a portable telescope, making it a good option for astrophotography sessions in far-flung sites.

At over 700mm long and 280mm wide and weighing 15kg - without camera or guiding equipment - this is a serious instrument for dedicated astrophotographers, but among other similar telescopes it boasts a relatively low price tag.

Using a full frame colour CMOS, we were able to capture a large target like the Pleiades in its entirety, with beautiful diffraction spikes on the brightest stars.

The ED127 also makes for a good medium-resolution planetary imaging instrument, and we acquired some lovely detail in our lunar images when paired with a high frame rate camera.

If you"re not interested in learning the fundamentals of observing with a telescope or fiddling with camera settings, but simply want a great piece of technology that will give you beautiful captures of deep-sky objects, this could be the telescope for you, provided the price tag doesn"t put you off.

Everything is done via the app, so you will need a tablet or smartphone. Up to 10 devices can be linked to the telescope over Wi-Fi, making it a good option for astronomy outreach or star parties.

The images produced by the eQuinox do ultimately fall short of those produced by astrophotographers using cameras on dedicated telescopes, but if you"re interested in this sort of telescope, the ease and gadgetry involved will more than likely make up for it.

The FOT106 has an f/6 106mm objective lens with a focal length of 636mm, putting it in the realms of being able to image larger star clusters, galaxies and nebulae.

We reckon a crop area of about 70% of full-frame size would produce acceptable star shapes, making it about right for DSLR and CMOS cameras with APS-C-size sensors or smaller.

Celestron’s Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt astrograph is made specifically with the sole purpose of imaging the night sky, so if this is your number one aim, you"re in good hands.

The best camera to use with the RASA would be a CCD camera with a low circular profile, so it"s hidden behind the adaptor plate. But DSLRs can be used too.

What"s more, this telescope is very user-friendly. Much of this is down to just how light it is: even with a Canon DSLR attached it weighed around 2kg, making it a good grab-and-go scope.

The Stellina is another cool piece of kit that offers to take all the manual tinkering out of astrophotography, automatically capturing images of deep-sky targets without the need for guiders, mounts, computer software, or even an external camera.

Overall, this is great visual telescope but can also be used for imaging, while its portability makes it a good option for travelling to dark-sky sites.

We began our imaging session with the Hercules Globular Cluster, taking a series of 5- and 10-minute exposures that revealed sharp details and colour at the core, continuing to the outer edges as well.

The Teleskop-Service 65mm Quadruplet Astrograph has 2-inch rack-and-pinion focuser that"s well-made and securely held our camera and astro imaging kit with no slippage, even with the tube pointing up towards the zenith.

The multicoated 65mm aperture, f/6.5 triplet lens has a focal length of just 420mm. This makes for a 3° by 2° field with the typical APS-C size sensor found in DSLR cameras.

It"s a sturdy steel tube with rings and fittings and weighs about 8.4kg even without astro imaging equipment attached. As a result, you"ll need a very strong, good mount to make the most of its light-gathering power.

Experienced astrophotographers might frown at our inclusion of the Celestron Inspire 100AZ in this list of best telescopes for astrophotography, but for complete beginners who want a good value scope that will let them capture images on their smartphone, this is a great choice.

It"s worth remembering that the Inspire 100AZ"s non-motorised mount is not designed with astrophotography in mind, but the telescope"s dust cap enables a smartphone to be attached that can then be paired with one of the included eyepieces for a spot of afocal photography.

Then we used our AZ-EQ6 mount to photograph M81 and 82 using 12x120-second exposures. We achieved great detail in our images and were thoroughly pleased with the results.

The corrector keeps good colour across the red, green and blue wavelengths, so if you"re imaging with a DSLR or CCD camera, you won"t be plagued by bloated blue stars.

A key aspect of the Horizon 60ED is its portability. The telescope is supplied in a sturdy case that houses the entire assembly, so the only extras you need for an imaging session in a dark-sky site are a DSLR and a good mount.

We used a CCD camera with an APS-C sensor to test the WO GTF 102, so the star shapes in our images are a good sign as to what you might expect to achieve with a typical DSLR camera, which has a similarly sized sensor.

We would recommend the WO GTF 102 to any astro imager who wants a well-performing instrument that removes the hassle of achieving a flat field with stars pin sharp to the edge.

Paired with a cropped-sensor DSLR, a full-frame DSLR, or a designated astro camera, the WideSky 80 can handle a wealth of configurations and is a good option for beginner astrophotographers who want to develop their skills and invest in camera kit without wanting to upgrade their telescope.

We also reckon the Photron RC6 would be perfect for imaging Messier Catalogue objects, since as it works well with a colour camera and can be easily transported to dark sky sites.

The Quattro also has thin spider vanes that produce sharp diffraction spikes, so a target like the Pleiades cluster, was ideal. We were able to captured a good deal of nebulosity with 3-min exposures.

Whether you"re a beginner or experienced astrophotographer, we"d love to see your images! Email them to us via contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com or share them with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Determining the telescope aperture size that works best for you will depend largely on what type of viewing experience you are hoping to achieve. A telescope"s aperture is essentially its lens size, essentially how much light it can gather and magnify. Generally, telescope apertures range from 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) all the way up to 30 inches (75.6 cm). So, depending on your distance of observation and detail you are seeking, telescopes with larger apertures offer greater clarity, fidelity, and magnification power than smaller ones. Those wanting to observe astronomical events should consider investing in telescope with a large aperture as they provide better resolution and more details when compared to telescope models with smaller lenses.

A telescope can be a major investment, and its cost depends on the telescope’s type, size, brand, aperture, and additional features. A beginner telescope may range from $150 to $400; mid-level telescopes may cost anywhere between $400 and $1,000; and large telescope systems may cost up to several thousand dollars.

While it can be tempting to choose the telescope with the highest magnification, it’s important to remember that telescope magnification has its limits. Generally speaking, telescope magnifications of 10x or 15x are considered ideal for novice astronomers as they provide adequate resolution without excessive strain on the telescope’s mechanics or difficulty in using it. More experienced astronomers may opt for telescope magnifications up to 50x or even higher depending on their field of study and the view desired. As telescope magnification increases, so does the quality of the telescope’s optics and its price tag.

When it comes to good telescope focal lengths, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Different types of observations and different levels of proficiency require different focal lengths. For basic astronomy, a good starting point for a beginner would be a telescope with a focal length somewhere in the range of 500 to 1000 millimeters. However, if you are looking for more difficult objects or scanning large deep sky objects, you might need to look into telescopes with even greater focal lengths. Ultimately, choosing the best telescope focal length depends on your own observational needs and preferences.

Generally speaking, the bigger telescope diameter means the telescope will collect more light. That leads to brighter and clearer images, which are especially useful when looking at faint and distant objects in the night sky. The most widely used telescope diameters range from as small as two inches to as big as fourteen inches. Telescopes with larger diameters provide deeper views of the night sky than smaller telescope diameters but may be harder for amateurs to use due to their larger size and bulkiness. Ultimately, the size of telescope you choose should depend on your budget, experience level, and what type of astronomy you plan on doing..

Celestron is a well-known brand, known for their versatile telescope designs with models ranging from telescope diameters of 60mm to 155mm. Meade Instruments is another manufacturer of both smaller telescope designs as well as larger telescope models with a telescope diameter range up to 406mm. Others that should be considered in terms of good telescope brands are Orion Telescopes & Binoculars, and Sky-Watcher USA. Ultimately, the telescope brand that"s right for you depends on your individual viewing situation and budget, so consider all the available options before making your telescope purchase.

The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming – or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.

Newly formed stars are the scene-stealers in this Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. These are the bright red orbs that sometimes appear with eight diffraction spikes. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually begin shining brightly.

Along the edges of the pillars are wavy lines that look like lava. These are ejections from stars that are still forming. Young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that can interact within clouds of material, like these thick pillars of gas and dust. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years.

Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp models of star formation. By identifying far more precise star populations, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these clouds over millions of years.

The core specifications of this equatorial mount include having a built-in ST-4 autoguider port, a payload capacity of 44 pounds, and a SynScan computer hand controller with an extensive database of objects.

I have been using the Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro telescope mount since October 2018, and have used it to capture several deep sky images of nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters in space. In this post, I’ll share some of my favorite features of this EQ mount that I have experienced over several imaging sessions in the backyard.

For those in the southern hemisphere, the process is very similar all around, aside from polar aligning the mount with the south celestial pole (SCP).

The EQ6-R Pro includes a SynScan hand controller with an LCD display that gives you control its features and basic functions. The left and right keys on the keypad control the Right Ascension (RA) axis, while the up and down arrows are used to control the Declination (DEC) axis.

Before powering up the EQ6-R, your telescope should be in the home position. This means that the EQ head is leveled on the tripod, and the RA axis is pointed towards the north celestial pole (NCP). The counterweight should be at its lowest position, and the telescope should be pointing towards the NCP. You can then turn on the mount and select the operation mode.

With the RA and DEC clutches locked, and counterweight(s) attached, you can mount your telescope on top of the EQ head. This is accomplished by fastening the mounting plate of your telescope to the saddle, which accepts both D and V-style mounting plates.

This involves entering the latitude and longitude coordinates of your current location using the cursor on the LCD display and the keypad. Then, you will enter your current time zone, which for me, happens to be UTC -4 in southern Ontario.

Once all of these important details have been entered (so the mount understands what is available in the sky from your location), you reach the mount alignment process, with the “Begin Alignment” dialog served up on the LCD screen.

This simple, yet useful feature automatically aligns your telescope mount in both axes at the beginning of your imaging session. It is not exclusive to the EQ6-R Pro, yet it is easy to miss if you don’t follow the instructions in the manual on your first few runs.

This feature is located under the “Utility Function” menu and asks you to turn off the mount after the park position has been confirmed. The next time you turn the mount on, you will see a dialog on the LCD display asking if you would like to start from the park position.

This is a handy feature that I did not personally take advantage of for the first few months of ownership with the mount. It is nice to confirm the home position when setting up, especially before beginning your polar alignment process.

This is largely due to the fact that the EQ6-6 includes large, Alt/Az adjustment bolts with comfortable handles. Fine-tuning the polar axis of this equatorial telescope mount is possible thanks to these convenient controls.

The built-in polar finder scope with an illuminated reticle allows you to accurately polar align the mount without the need for additional software or accessories. You can either use a third-party mobile app like “

The SynScan hand controller displays the position of Polaris in polar scopes’ field of view (FOV). You need to imagine that the large circle in the FOV of the polar scope as a clock’s face with 12:00 sitting at the top.

Before running a star alignment routine, make sure that your telescope is well balanced, and that there are no loose cables that could get caught and snag on the mount.

The alignment routine involves choosing a bright, named star from the database and centering it in your telescope eyepiece or camera. The LCD screen displays “Choose 1st Star”, at which point you can cycle through the list to find a star that is not blocked by any obstructions from your location and press enter.

It is often useful to leverage a finder scope on your telescope when slewing to your first alignment star, as it has a much wider field of view than your primary telescope and makes finding the first star easier.

When running through a star alignment routine, it is important to consistently center the alignment star in the eyepiece or camera’s FOV. It is beneficial to use a reticle eyepiece with a small FOV.

Personally, I use the camera’s FOV and center the star on my DSLR display screen (with grid-enabled), or with a cross-hair overlay in my camera control software (

You can run a 1,2, or 3-star alignment to improve the pointing accuracy of the telescope. This is very important when it comes to photographing deep-sky objects that are nearly invisible until a long exposure image is collected.

You can improve your alignment accuracy by avoiding errors due to mechanical backlash. Backlash is present in all equatorial telescope mounts and does not affect your observing enjoyment, or your long exposure images when

To avoid introducing alignment error caused by backlash, center the alignment star ending with UP and RIGHT directions from the keypad. If you overshoot the star using this method, use LEFT and DOWN to bring the star back down the FOV and try again.

This mount uses stepper motors with a 1.8° step angle and 64 micro steps driven. This technical design aspect results in a quieter mount than on using servo motors.

This means that even at the maximum slew speed (9X), the mount emits a modest hum that will not wake up your neighbors. While the telescope mount is tracking, it is completely silent. It’s only when you move the RA or DEC axis at top speed that you hear a noise.

Compared to other equatorial telescope mounts I have used, the audible sound the EQ6-R Pro makes is more than acceptable. When you are partaking in a hobby that takes place (alone) outside at night, avoiding loud or unusual noises when possible is always a good idea.

For a real-life example of the autoguiding performance, you can expect with this mount, have a look at the screenshot below. The guiding graph shows that my total RMS error is 0.63″. Generally, a total RMS error of under 1-second means that you can expect pinpoint stars in your long exposure images.

The weight of the EQ head is 38 lbs on its own, and the tripod adds another 16.5 lbs. Add in two 11-lb counterweights, and you’ve got a telescope rig that weighs 76.6 pounds and is not going anywhere for a while.

I used to carry my Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro SynScan around the yard with the telescope and counterweight attached. It was heavy and awkward, but manageable.

This is not possible with the EQ6-R, which is understandable considering the increased payload capacity (44-lbs) of the mount. To transport the Sky-Watcher EQ6-R from my detached garage to the yard, I must remove the counterweights and the telescope first.

It’s possible to lift the tripod with the EQ head attached (54.5 lbs), but this is likely too heavy for most folks. The good news is, this heavy profile means that accidentally bumping the polar alignment out of position by kicking a tripod leg is unlikely. Smaller, ultra-portable mounts like the

In my experience, the Sky-Watcher EQ6-R can track accurately for 10-minute exposures (or longer) without any re-greasing or modifications to the worm gears when autoguiding is leveraged.

The included SynScan hand controller includes an impressive 42,000+ object database, with almost every possible target you could ever want to observe or photograph.

The Messier object list gets a lot of use for amateur astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere, while the NGC catalog is great for pointing the telescope at more obscure nebulae and star clusters.

To slew to these objects, it may be better to control the EQ6-R using your PC using a supplementary PC-Link cable along with the appropriate ASCOM drivers and software.

Periodic tracking error is present in all equatorial telescope mounts, and is due to the design of the internal gears. The Sky-Watcher EQ6-R includes a periodic error correction (PEC) function to help correct this.

The PEC training procedure requires that you first polar align and star align the telescope mount. Then, slew to a star close to the celestial equator, and center it in the telescope eyepiece or imaging camera.

Then, navigate to the Utility Function > PEC Training mode and press enter. From here you can select the speed you would like to use for PEC training. The Sky-Watcher SynScan manual suggests using 0.125X sidereal rate for wider FOV telescopes such as the

After selecting the speed using the “1” or “2” keys, the screen will then start to display the elapsed time of the PEC training routine. Now, your job is to keep the star centered in the FOV using the left and right direction keys on the hand controller.

These days, I use a 12V AC/DC adapter with 6 amps to power the EQ6-R when plugged in at home. Here is a picture of the exact AC/DC adapter I use with the EQ6-R, and here is a link to it on Amazon. Others have found the

As you may have noticed, there is a lot to cover when discussing all of the features of the Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro SynScan computerized telescope mount. The very

From my early days with the HEQ5 Pro to my latest session in the backyard with the EQ6, I’ve been extremely satisfied with the user experience and performance of Sky-Watcher’s affordable equatorial telescope mounts.

“This mount is simply amazing. It is robust and tracks very well. I was taking 5-minute subs with no star trails. It is built like a tank and handles my Meade 5″ refractor with ease. The stepper motors are quiet. It’s simply a joy to use and I highly recommend it. The price is well worth it” – James S. on HPS website

Do you use the Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro for astrophotography? If so, let me know your experiences with it in the comments. To stay up to date with my latest adventures in the backyard, be sure to

But Hubble"s about far more than just pretty pictures. The mission has gathered dozens of terabytes of data over the decades, providing key insights into the universe, from objects as close as the moon to the most remote galaxies, with observations of supernovas and nebulas in between.

Here we explore the history of the telescope and its many discoveries, provide interesting Hubble facts and link to some of the orbiting observatory"s best images.

When Galileo Galilei first turned a spyglass to the heavens in 1610, he had trouble making out the rings of Saturn that are visible in inexpensive telescopes today. Advances in optics eventually improved scientists" views of the planets, stars and distant galaxies, but Earth"s atmosphere still blocked or distorted much of the light for observers on the ground. Larger telescopes were, and still are, placed atop mountains, where the thinner atmosphere at higher elevations allows clearer pictures.

In 1946, soon after World War II, astronomer Lyman Spitzer proposed launching a space telescope, which could overcome the limitations of ground-based observatories. It took a couple more decades before the idea garnered enough support for the U.S. National Academy of Sciences to organize a committee of scientists to evaluate the potential of a "Large Space Telescope." With Spitzer at the helm, the committee published a document in 1969 that outlined the scientific uses of a Large Space Telescope and advocated for its construction, according to a Hubble history written by Gabriel Olkoski for NASA(opens in new tab).

The National Academy of Sciences took the pitch to NASA — the only agency capable of making the Large Space Telescope a reality. NASA was already considering a space telescope of some type, but the agency was undecided about how big to make it and where to start. In 1971, George Low, the agency"s acting administrator at the time, greenlit the Large Space Telescope Science Steering Group, and NASA soon began lobbying Congress for funding for the endeavor.

— The telescope"s primary mirror is 94.5 inches (2.4 m) wide and weighs 1,825 pounds (828 kg). Its secondary mirror is 12 inches (0.3 m) wide and weighs 27.4 pounds (12.3 kg).

The expensive project was a tough sell, and funding was initially denied by the House Appropriations Subcommittee in 1975. NASA then upped its lobbying efforts and got buy-in from European Space Agency, which shared the costs. Congress eventually granted funding for NASA"s portion of the Large Space Telescope in 1977.

Development began almost immediately. NASA planned to launch the telescope in 1983, but various production delays pushed the launch date back to 1986.

In the meantime, the Large Space Telescope was renamed Hubble in honor of Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer who, among other things, determined that the universe extended beyond the borders of the Milky Way.

Hubble experienced equipment issues right off the bat. For example, the telescope"s first images came back so blurry that they were close to useless scientifically. It turned out that Hubble"s 7.9-foot-wide (2.4 meters) main mirror had a defect — a spherical aberration caused by a manufacturing error. The flaw was minute, at just 1/50th the thickness of a sheet of paper, but that was big enough to cause major imaging problems.

Hubble became a laughingstock, the butt of jokes that spread through popular culture. For instance, the 1991 film "Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear(opens in new tab)" features a photo of Hubble. It appears on the wall of an establishment called Loser"s Bar, along with pictures of the Hindenburg, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Ford Edsel and other famous disasters.

The 1997 mission replaced some failed or degraded hardware and installed two new instruments, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. The new instruments, which replaced the GHRS and FOS, extended Hubble"s vision into the near-infrared wavelength range, NASA officials wrote in a servicing mission explainer(opens in new tab).

The next crewed Hubble visit, known as Servicing Mission 3B (following from 1999"s Servicing Mission 3A), occurred in December 2002. During that 11-day trip, "astronauts replaced Hubble"s solar panels and installed the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which took the place of Hubble"s Faint Object Camera, the telescope"s last original instrument," NASA officials wrote in the servicing mission explainer.

Like Hubble"s launch, the fifth and final servicing mission was delayed by a shuttle tragedy — the February 2003 breakup of Columbia during its reentry to Earth"s atmosphere, which killed all seven astronauts on board. That tragic accident ended up pushing the servicing flight back from its initial 2005 target date to May 2009. During the mission, astronauts put in new batteries and gyroscopes and installed two new instruments, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3. Among other tasks, the spacewalkers also revived the ACS and STIS, both of which had failed. "With these efforts, Hubble was brought to the apex of its scientific capabilities," NASA officials wrote.

When astronomers pointed the HST to a seemingly empty patch of sky in Ursa Major in 1995, for instance, they captured an image of over 3,000 galaxies too distant to be detected by other telescopes. (This was later called the Hubble Deep Field). Some of the galaxies were so young, they had not yet begun serious star formation. Other deep field observations in the same area were performed, peering deeper into space each time. These were called the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (released in 2004) and the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (released in 2012).

Further, Hubble has seen what appear to be water plumes erupting from Europa, a potentially life-hosting moon of Jupiter. The telescope made an initial observation in March 2014 and then saw a follow-up candidate plume in the same location in February 2016.

Hubble has been showing signs of its advanced age. For example, the telescope went offline for a month in the summer of 2021 after experiencing an issue with its main payload computer. The Hubble team fixed the problem by switching to backup hardware.

But just a few months later, in October 2021, a problem arose with the synchronization of Hubble"s internal messaging, sending all five of the observatory"s science instruments into a protective "safe mode." The mission team managed to get all of the instruments back online over the next few months.

Hubble"s highly anticipated successor, the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, is already aloft. Webb launched on Dec. 25, 2021 and arrived at its final destination, the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2, a month later.

Webb is expected to begin science operations in the summer of 2022. Astronomers are excited to use Webb and Hubble in tandem. Webb will view the universe in infrared light whereas Hubble is strongest in optical and ultraviolet wavelengths, so studying the same objects and phenomena with both observatories will provide a wealth of insight and information, NASA officials have said.

Here are 30 incredible Hubble photos(opens in new tab) in honor of the telescope"s 30th anniversary, from NASA. On the agency"s Hubble page, you can find out what Hubble saw on your birthday(opens in new tab). And it"s definitely worth following Hubble on Twitter @NASAHubble(opens in new tab) — you"ll see lots of pretty pictures and get updates about the observatory"s latest activities and discoveries.

English, N. "Hubble: The People"s Telescope." Pp. 47-61 in "Space Telescopes: Capturing the Rays of the Electromagnetic Spectrum," Springer, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27814-8_3

Gainor, C. "Not Yet Imagined: A Study of Hubble Space Telescope Operations." NASA Office of Communications, NASA History Division, 2021. https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/not_yet_imagined_tagged.pdf

In July 2022, all of space nerddom released a collective squeal of excitement when the James Webb Space Telescope released its first images. The images are stunning, and offer a clarity of the universe we"ve never before experienced in such exquisite sharpness and detail. And since these images were released, the telescope has continued to explore and discover early galaxies.

And while the Webb Telescope continues to send jaw-dropping images like the pair below, showing a dusty debris ring around a dwarf star in the southern constellation Microscopiu, the first images still hold a special place for us, With all the recent news about the Webb telescope, we decided to take another look at the initial high-resolution images and share them with our fellow nerds.

The Webb"s first images, shared in summer 2022, are available on the Webb Space Telescope website. Image resolutions vary, but they"re available in sizes from "just" 4K-by-4K and up. One example of the Carina Nebula — located 8,500 light-years from earth — is available in up to 14,575-by-8,441 pixels, though smaller versions of most of the images are available as well. Keep in mind that these files can get pretty big for the full-quality versions, though — we"re talking over a hundred megabytes. File formats are TIF and PNG, so you"re getting great quality.

If the photos by themselves aren"t enough for you, there are also cool infographics that offer details on spectrum analysis and explain the Webb telescope"s diffraction spikes — star-shaped lens flare that appear in some of the images. Renders and artist illustrations are also available, and you can filter images by collection, category, or type, as well as search for specific stuff in the library. There are a lot more than just the five samples available, and some of those samples are even available in multiple versions captured from different parts of the infrared spectrum.