The Best Telescopes for Beginners

This guide’s original writer, Colin Rosemont, grew up around telescopes and has had a longtime interest in astronomy, but he still considers himself a beginner. His relative lack of expertise allowed him to get a fresh perspective on each telescope model he tested. He was able to flail and make mistakes when setup instructions were not clear, and he learned to operate each telescope as if he were a complete novice—exactly the group we wanted to write this guide for.

Editor Signe Brewster is also a novice telescope user (though during her tenure as a physics writer, she spent a lot of time thinking about space at the particle level). She has spent the past decade writing about emerging technology, including drones, 3D printers, and virtual reality. And in that time she has developed an eye for what makes gadgets especially accessible or off-putting to beginners.

James Austin is a staff writer who has been covering games and hobbies since 2022. Growing up an hour away from Kennedy Space Center with two grandparents working for NASA, he has been fascinated and excited by space since he was born. After using all of our picks periodically to view the dark skies of Colorado, he now has a handle on the basics of amateur stargazing, and he used that experience to look into the new subcategory of smart telescopes with integrated imaging technology.

For this guide:

• We consulted a number of experts for guidance. This group included:
  • Daniel Mounsey—an employee at Woodland Hills Camera & Telescopes, which is known as telescope and binocular central for serious skywatchers and birders in Los Angeles—who has lectured at astronomical trade shows and academic institutions
  • Margaret McCrea, former president of Rose City Astronomers of Portland, Oregon, a nonprofit group that supports the public in pursuit of education and interests in astronomy
  • Greg Jones, another member of Rose City Astronomers and president of Eclipse Technologies
  • Talia Sepersky, coordinator at the Boston Museum of Science’s Charles Hayden Planetarium and writer of its Spacing Out blog
  • Bart Fried, executive vice president of the New York City–based Amateur Astronomers Association
• After interviewing our experts, we read through NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe, Terence Dickinson’s quintessential reference. We took advice from published sources at Space.com, Sky & Telescope, Digital Camera World, and the inner reaches of the Cloudy Nights forum. And after all that, we had a pretty good sense of what we were looking for.
• We spent dozens of nights setting up and using the telescopes in various settings and light conditions—everywhere from city backyards to dark-sky backwoods locations.
• In accordance with Wirecutter’s standards and to avoid any conflict of interest, we don’t own stock or have any other financial interest in any company or industry that we cover or are likely to cover.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, we review and test products with complete editorial independence. We’re never made aware of any business implications of our editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

The telescopes we recommend in this guide are ideal for beginning astronomers, as they’re designed to help you become familiar with the night sky. Using one of these scopes, you can start by looking at the moon, move on to the planets of the solar system, and then venture on to the “deep sky” to examine star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies.

We wanted to find scopes with the appropriate range to help a new astronomer get started and then keep them learning. So we looked for options that are especially easy to set up and use, as well as those equipped with high-quality mirrors and lenses that won’t limit how far more-experienced stargazers can see.

To find their first planetary objects, some people might like the additional hand-holding of a computerized or app-compatible telescope, while others might like the challenge of finding stars the analog way. We’ve included options for both approaches.

We limited our testing pool to telescopes that were $2,000 or less at the time of this guide’s most recent update. Once you start spending more, telescopes become more specialized. And if you’re at that stage of your astronomy journey, you likely already know which specific features you’d like to spend that extra cash on.

Telescopes are typically large and heavy devices, so we’ve noted the physical abilities necessary to use each of them. Some come with an adjustable tripod, while others must sit on a tabletop. Some need only a gentle push for positioning, while others require fine-tuning with a knob or buttons pressed on a controller.

Telescopes also range significantly in weight and portability. Generally, you need to bend over to look through a telescope’s lens. If you’re planning a star-viewing party with accessibility in mind, you might find this Astronomers Without Borders guide helpful.

There’s no single telescope that is right for everybody, so rather than setting rigid requirements for specific types of telescopes and key features, we looked for options with a mix of characteristics with regard to aperture, magnification, lens and finder design, and type of mount.

Telescope features

• Aperture: This is the diameter of the telescope’s mirror or lens. It determines how much light the telescope lets in and, in turn, how deeply it can see into the night sky, revealing fainter and more distant celestial bodies. But a larger aperture isn’t always better; in most cases, it means a bulkier and more expensive telescope. Wider apertures can also reduce overall image sharpness. For this reason, we decided to bypass telescopes with 10-inch, 12-inch, or 14-plus-inch apertures; they are often so big and unwieldy as to deter many people from getting their telescope out and using it as much as possible.

• Magnification: This is determined by both focal length and the design of the telescope’s eyepiece. To figure out your telescope’s magnifying power, divide the focal length of the telescope by the focal length of the eyepiece. So, for example, if you put a 10mm eyepiece on a telescope with a 1000mm focal length, your magnification power is 100x. But while more magnifying power does mean you can see tinier objects that are farther away, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll enjoy better image quality. At lower magnifications, the image you observe can appear bright and in good resolution, whereas at higher magnifications, the same amount of light is dispersed over a larger area, resulting in a bigger but blurrier image. You can determine a telescope’s magnification limits by multiplying the diameter (in millimeters) of the main lens or mirror by 2. So a 150mm telescope, for instance, would have a practical magnification limit of about 300x. As a general rule, the maximum amount of desired magnification for a telescope is 50x per inch of aperture.

• Lenses: A Barlow lens comes as an accessory with several of the telescopes we tested. This auxiliary lens system fits between the telescope and the eyepiece, decreasing the eyepiece’s focal length and offering double or even triple the magnification of the image. All of the models we tested (except the “smart” telescopes) come with a 20mm or 25mm eyepiece. Most models we tried also come with a 10mm eyepiece; it may seem counterintuitive, but the 10mm eyepiece offers more magnification, producing an enlarged image and a smaller field of view.
• Finder scope: This comes included with a telescope and is normally mounted on the telescope itself. It has either a battery-operated red dot or a set of crosshairs for you to align and center an object in its sights. Aligning the finder scope before viewing through your telescope is an essential step, one that will help you locate what you’re looking for through the more powerful telescope.

Telescope types

• Refractor: In this sort of telescope, light passes through the lens at the front and travels directly to a mirror at the back of the scope and then into the eyepiece. This lets you view objects both in the sky and on Earth because the image is not inverted inside the telescope. The trade-off is that this type of telescope generally does not do as well with faint objects in the sky.
• Reflector: This variety uses two mirrors instead of a lens to gather and focus light. Such models typically allow for higher image quality of faint sky objects. On the downside, reflector telescopes can gather more dust and debris in their internal components and require a bit more maintenance. Dobsonian telescopes, a type of reflector model, are often referred to in astronomy circles as “light buckets.”
• Compound or Schmidt-Cassegrain: Sometimes referred to as a catadioptric or Cassegrain telescope for short, this type is a combination of two mirrors and one lens. These scopes are best for viewing faint objects and can also work for viewing objects on Earth.

Mount types

• Altazimuth or alt-azimuth: This is a simple system that moves both vertically (“altitude” motion up and down) and horizontally (“azimuth” motion side to side). This kind of mount offers the best ease of use and scope control for beginners, and it sometimes comes with computer controls that can find objects in the sky for you.
• Equatorial: These mounts are more complicated and must be aligned with Earth’s axis. Once you’ve done that, the scope tracks objects in the sky as they move. This design is especially useful for astrophotography because it eliminates field rotation as it tracks an object through the night sky.

Over the course of seven years, we’ve tested telescopes in several locations across the United States. These included Portland, Oregon; the high desert outside Smith Rock State Park in central Oregon; St. Paul, Minnesota; Denver, Colorado; and rural Indiana.

To test each model, we first timed how long we took to set it up and have it ready for stargazing. Nobody wants to be discouraged by the technology before they even have the chance to position it outside, so ease of setup was a big factor in our assessment.

We also tested the stability and user-friendliness of each telescope’s mount. Slight bumps to the eyepiece readily showed which mounts were sturdy and which ones could not handle even the slightest shake without losing the image in the frame. Additionally, we took portability into account, considering size, weight, and packability for the average recreational observer.

We ranked the relative clarity of the image and the brightness level from our test models. And to measure each telescope’s ease of use, we operated each telescope, moving it back and forth between Jupiter and the moon (two objects in the night sky that are relatively easy to locate).

We tested three different computerized mounts, allowing for a side-by-side comparison of their functionality. A recurring word of advice from our interviewed experts: Figure out how to work your computerized system before you get out under the night sky! Using the technology can definitely involve a learning curve, so it is a good idea to dial it in while you’re in the comfort of your own backyard, before you go farther afield.

To test the telescopes’ optical quality, we followed the advice of Greg Jones, president of Eclipse Technologies and resident optics expert of the Rose City Astronomers club of Portland, Oregon, in performing a Ronchi eyepiece test. Using a 35mm film canister and the Ronchi screen that Jones sent us, we improvised a Ronchi eyepiece. After replacing the normal eyepiece with the Ronchi eyepiece fitted with the screen, we focused the telescopes on a bright star to see whether we observed a pattern of parallel lines on the object.

As expected, we observed lines that appeared relatively straight and parallel to the edge, rather than the warped lines that would indicate some type of aberration or distortion in the main optical unit. The majority of commercial telescopes nowadays are manufactured in China or Taiwan; the standardized manufacturing and testing methods the companies use ensure more-consistent optical quality than in the past, as well as increasingly affordable prices.

Top pick

Celestron NexStar 5SE Computerized Telescope

The best beginner telescope

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

Buying Options

$799 from Amazon

$799 from Walmart

$799 from Best Buy

The Celestron NexStar 5SE Computerized Telescope, a Schmidt-Cassegrain model, is our top pick due to its superior ease of use and solid image quality. Its primary 5-inch mirror offers crisp, intimate views of the moon and bright planets, and it provides an entry into views of distant galaxies and star clusters.

It’s fully computerized. The NexStar 5SE comes with a handheld controller to guide the telescope across the sky. Compared with our experience using some competing models, we found that this controller worked seamlessly, offering micro adjustments and responsive tracking with the attached controller system.

It provides the best balance between functionality and size. We chose the NexStar 5SE as the best telescope for most beginners because of its size, functionality, and cost. The telescope and the included tripod together weigh about 27 pounds and easily disassemble into several portable pieces.

Since we were looking for portability, we set aside the larger models in the same product line, and we dismissed the smaller NexStar 4SE due to its more-limited capacity to offer views of deep-sky objects.

If size is not an issue for you, we recommend upgrading to the NexStar 6SE, since an extra inch of aperture opens up more light-gathering potential and thus more viewing opportunities.

The NexStar 5SE comes with a 25mm eyepiece, a great first option before you expand into more-specialized eyepieces.

The computerized mount makes finding stars easy. This can help speed up the learning process and assist novices in navigating the endless sea of stars without their having to commit years to accumulating that kind of knowledge. (If you want to learn the old-fashioned way, a great resource for the whole family is The Stars: A New Way to See Them, an astronomy how-to written by H.A. Rey, the creator of Curious George.)

Note that you can control this telescope only with its controller, so you should be comfortable pressing buttons and reading a small screen instead of pushing the optical tube into position.

It comes with a database of targets to look at.  When you enter information such as the date, the time, and the nearest city to your observing site, the NexStar 5SE offers a database of nearly 40,000 nighttime objects.

This database allows you to identify objects you see through the scope, as well as to instruct the telescope to find new objects. The Tour feature offers a list of the best objects to view specific to your time and location, anywhere in the world.

It’s easy to set up and use. Along with an extensive owner manual, the NexStar 5SE comes with an expedited and abridged setup manual, replete with instructional photos intended to get you using your telescope as fast as possible.

Using these friendly instructions, we had the telescope mounted and set up in under 15 minutes (you need to tighten some screws, but most pieces snap together), and we were already playing with the SkyAlign telescope-alignment features. The telescope comes with an adjustable tripod, which makes it easy to use whether you’re sitting down or standing up.

The included accessories are excellent. The NexStar 5SE includes a 25mm eyepiece, which serves as the best starter eyepiece to expand upon later. It also comes with an ultra-sturdy steel tripod, and you can attach the optical tube without having to use tools. The NexStar 5SE’s tripod (but not that of the 6SE or the 8SE) also includes a wedge for adjusting the mount and allowing for some tinkering in longer-exposure astrophotography.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• It runs on eight AA batteries, and they drain fast. The batteries power the mount, and when it’s in use they offer an average of only two to four hours of power. Other power sources are available, however, including this AC adapter from Celestron. You can also draw power from your car battery and a portable 12 V DC power supply. Celestron sells an accessory called a Power Tank for use in the field, but we haven’t tested it ourselves. If you’d like a rechargeable option, check out our favorite portable power stations.

Budget pick

Astronomers Without Borders OneSky Reflector Telescope

A budget scope without the GPS, under $300

This manual telescope (a type that some people prefer) offers quality optics and design touches that far exceed its price. It works best on a tabletop.

Buying Options

$250 from Astronomers Without Borders

Finding a high-quality telescope on a budget can be hard, but the Astronomers Without Borders OneSky Reflector Telescope fits the bill, offering crisp views of the solar system’s planets and even some deeper-space star systems atop a compact and easy-to-maneuver base.

This classic design is manufactured by Celestron and sold exclusively by the nonprofit organization Astronomers Without Borders, whose profits go toward expanding astronomical scientific educational programming in underserved countries around the world.

It provides tons of functionality at a great price. In our tests this model, priced at $250 at this writing, excelled in image quality, providing great views of Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons, as well as faint detail in the spiral arms of the Andromeda Galaxy.

It doesn’t compromise on usability or clarity. When you’re looking for a telescope on a budget, it’s important to consider potential flaws, such as poor optics, shaky mounts, substandard eyepieces, and faulty finder scopes. We vetted the OneSky for all of these common issues, and it passed our examination with flying colors.

It’s very portable. The optical truss tube assembly collapses from its 24-inch viewing length to 14 inches, and it weighs only 14 pounds.

It’s a breeze to use. The tabletop Dobsonian mount, a simplified alt-azimuth mount, is steady and smooth, and it works well when the OneSky telescope is sitting on a table or some other solid platform.

Orienting the telescope is as intuitive as it gets because you just push on the optical tube; doing so takes very little physical strength. The swiveling mount has an integrated handle for easy carrying, and in our experience it proved reasonably stable and smooth when we searched for objects in the night sky.

It’s capable of viewing celestial bodies both near and far. The OneSky comes with both a 10mm eyepiece and a 25mm eyepiece for a range of viewing magnifications. As a result, despite its low price, this starter telescope offers a dynamic range that can get you exploring everything from the moon to some deep-sky objects.

It needs a bit of extra setup. Out of the box, the OneSky needs collimation (alignment of the telescope mirrors). With advice from online forums to complete the collimation, you can be ready to go.

Best for

Sky-Watcher Classic Dobsonian Telescope (8-inch)

Best for sharp views farther into space

Though a bit unwieldy at times, this model can view dimmer objects in the deeper reaches of space.

Buying Options

$549 from Amazon

The Sky-Watcher Classic Dobsonian Telescope (8-inch) is the type of telescope experts most often suggest for beginners looking to get the most bang for their buck. Also referred to as “light buckets,” Dobsonian models offer exceptional image quality and light-gathering capability for the price. The Sky-Watcher Classic has a larger mirror than our other picks, so it can gaze deeper into the night sky and get clearer images with the same amount of light, but its large size makes it harder to bring to remote stargazing locations.

It’s big and heavy, but sharper than our budget pick. The Sky-Watcher Classic weighs about 60 pounds (including the scope and base) and ships in two boxes, one housing the tubular scope and the other containing the unassembled swiveling base.

We had this telescope fully assembled and ready to go in under an hour, which was quite fast in comparison with the process for some other Dobsonian telescopes but more than twice as long as it took us to set up most of the telescopes we tested.

This telescope’s much bulkier design gives it a lot more space for mirrors and lenses, though. Thanks to this Sky-Watcher model’s much larger mirror and wider aperture, you can get more-detailed views of near-Earth objects and crisper looks at deep-sky subjects such as nebulae and distant star systems.

It’s more useful in backyards than in the backwoods. For our tests, we were able to transport two 8-inch Dobsonian telescopes in the back of a Subaru hatchback. But don’t expect to just throw this telescope in your trunk and head out with a bunch of friends to do some stargazing. This telescope works best for backyard or “sidewalk” viewing, for which minimal transportation is required.

It lacks computer-assisted positioning. Like our Astronomers Without Borders budget pick, the Sky-Watcher Classic Dobsonian Telescope does not come with any computerized components to assist in locating and tracking stars in the sky. For a beginner, the absence of such a system can be either a blessing or a curse.

Greg Jones, president of Eclipse Technologies and member of the Rose City Astronomers club in Portland, Oregon, told us, “People will generally use [manual] telescopes a lot more than computerized models. Every star-viewing event, people show up with their computerized mounts, wondering how to use them and needing help.”

The superb optics of this model from Sky-Watcher work best for people who want a taste of a high-powered scope but don’t need or want the hassle of a computerized mount.

Best for

Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ Refractor Telescope

Best for learning about and viewing near-Earth objects

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.

Buying Options

$180 from Amazon

$230 from Walmart

$230 from Home Depot

If the stars are unexplored territory for you, the Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ Refractor Telescope is the fastest, cheapest, and most helpful traditional telescope we’ve found for bringing the sky to life.

This telescope is not computerized, which is one of the reasons it’s the cheapest of our picks. Instead it relies on the Celestron StarSense Explorer app to point out the night’s most notable stars and planets and how to find them.

The 3.15-inch aperture isn’t large enough for you to see clearly into deep space, but it still keeps closer objects, such as the solar system’s planets and the moon, within reach. We found positioning its optical tube easy, and at 9.2 pounds it’s especially portable.

It integrates with a phone app surprisingly well. The LT 80AZ and other telescopes in Celestron’s StarSense lineup use a clever trick to sync with the StarSense Explorer app: You place your phone in the holder attached to the optical tube, with the camera pointed at the integrated mirror, and the app uses whatever stars the camera sees in the mirror to pinpoint exactly where the telescope is and then show you a map of the night sky.

The app highlights notable stars, planets, and constellations, and if you tap them, the app shows you which direction to move the telescope to view them. It also has a screen where you can see a list of “tonight’s best objects.” If you’re a beginner with little knowledge about finding stars, this is a totally stress-free way to design your stargazing, one that our other picks lack entirely.

It’s not great for deep-sky objects, but it works well for solar-system-centric viewing. The LT 80AZ is a refractor-style telescope, which, in combination with its relatively small 3.15-inch aperture, means it’s best suited to looking at the moon and planets within our own galaxy. More-distant galaxies are out of reach. (The Celestron StarSense DX 130AZ pairs the same app with a more-sensitive reflector telescope. But for the price, we think most people will be more satisfied upgrading to the Orion StarSeeker IV 150mm, if it’s available.)

There’s still plenty to see, though, so if you’re a beginner who values app integration, we think the LT 80AZ is a worthwhile telescope. The LT 80AZ comes with 25mm and 10mm eyepieces, plus a 2x Barlow lens.

Its tripod mount is easy to use but not as smooth as the ones that come with our other picks. The LT 80AZ has an alt-azimuth mount, so you can easily push the telescope to move it into position. In our experience, we found that it lacked the smooth finesse of our other picks, but it was still easy to use.

We appreciate that it can also lock in place to prevent your bumping it out of position, though that means you have to turn a knob to lock and unlock the telescope’s position. Thanks to the included adjustable tripod, you don’t need a tabletop to comfortably begin star hunting.

It’s super light and easy to carry with you. At 9.2 pounds, the LT 80AZ is the lightest telescope we’ve tested. Its optical tube is long and thin, and its tripod is collapsible. You’re unlikely to want to haul it along on a hiking trip, but it is especially easy to store in a trunk and then carry a short distance.

Assembling it for the first time took us just over 15 minutes, twice as long as for our budget pick and similar to the process for our top pick. But once you’ve completed the initial assembly, this telescope packs away or sets up in just a few minutes.

Best for

ZWO Astro Seestar S50 All-in-One Smart Telescope

Best for astrophotography

This easy-to-carry-and-set-up telescope can capture good-looking photos of deep-sky objects such as nebulae and galaxies.

Buying Options

$475 from Amazon

If you want a telescope that gets you up close and personal with the stars and helps you get started in astrophotography, it’s hard to beat the ZWO Astro Seestar S50 All-in-One Smart Telescope. This compact, all-in-one telescope is just as easy to set up and use as our top pick, and while its optics aren’t as powerful, it still captures great images of deep-sky objects thanks to clever post-processing.

It’s simple to set up. The Seestar S50 comes ensconced in a small foam cube, which makes this light telescope easy to carry with you. You can store it completely assembled, and the included tripod—which is best suited to tabletop use due to its diminutive size—sets up in about five minutes.

The Seestar app (iOS and Android), which allows you to control the scope, includes a list of celestial objects that are best for viewing in your area and the current time of night. That feature makes picking an object and pointing the telescope at it especially quick and easy.

It produces surprisingly crisp images, considering its cost and size. When the Seestar S50 is pointed at an object, it begins taking long-exposure photos in order to deliver as much light as possible to its tiny sensor. Then it uses a photography trick called stacking to squeeze more detail out of the noisy images.

This technique allows the relatively small camera sensor to punch above its weight in image quality. Sure, you can find more powerful astrophotography telescopes out there, and if you want complete control over your images, it would be best to build your own astrophotography rig, but either alternative would cost you least twice as much as the Seestar S50 (and weigh a lot more, as well).

The app does a good job of giving you things to look at. The list of subjects in the night sky shifts depending on the season and where you are located. As a result, you almost always have something to image, and if you make a habit of using the Seestar S50, you’ll start to learn more about the slice of sky you have access to.

We used the Seestar S50 in various locations around Colorado and Indiana (where we used it to capture a solar eclipse), and although it struggled in high light-pollution areas such as downtown Denver, we still captured useful, beautiful images even in a city-center backyard.

If you don’t mind spending more to get clearer images from an astrophotography telescope: The Vaonis Vespera II brings the ease of use and straightforward image generation of the Seestar S50 to a telescope with a larger sensor and better optics. However, it costs more than triple what the Seestar S50 does, it’s much more of a hassle to carry and set up, and it doesn’t come with a charger or a USB-C charging cable. Still, if you can afford it and you don’t mind some small annoyances with the tripod setup, it produces great images of the night sky.

The Celestron StarSense DX 130AZ Newtonian Reflector Telescope pairs the smartphone connectivity of the LT 80AZ with a reflector telescope that can see deeper into space. But we found it more difficult to set up and position. We’d rather upgrade to a computerized option such as the Celestron NexStar 5SE or the Orion StarSeeker IV 150mm.

The relatively inexpensive Celestron PowerSeeker 127EQ Telescope was difficult to set up and use; though equatorial mounts are useful for photography, we think they’re too much work for beginners, and we can’t recommend this telescope as a result.

The Celestron Astro Fi 130mm Newtonian Telescope offers some neat technological features, since it emits its own Wi-Fi signal and allows you to control the mount using an application on your smartphone or tablet. We really wanted to like this smart-tech interface, but delays and glitches in the connection thwarted our repeated attempts at smooth operation, causing more frustration than we thought this tech was worth. We also found the tripod to be considerably flimsier than that of our top choice.

Although the large, 8-inch Orion SkyQuest XT8i IntelliScope Dobsonian Telescope offered great views of faint galaxies and nebulae in our tests, its time-intensive setup and many moving parts made it seem less accessible and portable than our top pick. And though it offers a computer database of more than 14,000 objects, this telescope instructs you to position the scope manually instead of moving on a motorized system. The method has its pros and cons, but we’d like the accessibility of motorized mounts if we’re going for GPS functions.

The Celestron Inspire 80AZ Refractor Telescope is a straightforward, easily assembled model that offered good views of the planets in our tests, with an 80mm aperture. But it couldn’t compare to the 5-inch aperture and image quality of our budget pick.

The Sky-Watcher Virtuoso is intended to excel at tracking objects in the sky throughout their trajectory, making it suitable for people venturing into astrophotography. But it has a difficult learning curve, and it fits a niche segment that is not beginner-friendly.

The Levenhuk Strike 90 Plus Telescope, a 90mm refractor telescope, is classic in its design, but it comes with a mount and tripod that in our tests produced more shakiness than we saw from our budget pick. We also had trouble getting the included counterweight to control the telescope’s position effectively.

Though we were impressed with the image quality from such a mini Dobsonian, the Orion SkyScanner 100mm TableTop Reflector Telescope did not feel as grab-and-go as another Orion model we tested, the kid-friendly GoScope (a refractor scope ideal for casual viewing). The SkyScanner offered better planetary viewing than the kids scope, but when it came to whipping the Orion GoScope out of its specially designed backpack and pointing it at the moon, it really took the cake.

We tried the Unistellar Odyssey Pro, a version of the Unistellar Odyssey with an integrated viewing eyepiece, alongside the Seestar S50 and Vaonis Vespera II. The image quality of the Odyssey line outstripped both of the other smart telescopes—thanks to a larger sensor, wider aperture, and longer focal length—but we’ve concluded that beginners would be better off spending less money to see if this is the sort of stargazing experience they enjoy, before considering the much more expensive Odyssey line.

We considered testing the Celestron Origin Intelligent Home Observatory, but we decided that this smart telescope, with a starting price of $4,000, was too expensive to recommend in this guide.

This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.