Hi.
I'm planning to buy a telescope first time and I need to know what are questions I need to ask? How do I choose a telescope?
I don't care yet about imaging. All I want is a telescope without too many fancy electronics. Just something to get started.

Any ideas?

Go into the "Welcome Introduce yourself" Forum and read my welcome message. Within that are some links that will answer a lot of your questions along with some you may not know you have yet.

Tkerr is right, lots of good info on this site.

From a personal standpoint though, I'd look at the lower end Celestron telescopes. Now i'm a bit partial cause thats what I have, but there are several reasons it was a good choice for me.

I got a Celestron AstroMaster 70mm refractor on the altazimuth mount. The first reason I picked this was it was only $135 and came with 2 ep's. Secondly, I was able to go to Fry's electronics to get it (they have more, and some nice ones, in stock around christmas time) so i had no worry/wait for shipping.

I would recomend spending the extra money on the EQ model, equitorial mount. It tends to be about $50 more at that low a level and is well worth it both for ease and preparing for the future (using nicer mounts, got-to's, etc.) Whatever you do, get some binos too ;)

Good luck to ya, happy observing.

DISCLAIMER - Beware of "the curse". Getting a new scope usually means a month or so of cloudy nights, I hope you fair better.

 So you can actually see nice stuff with a 150-200 bucks telescope? I always thought it BEGINS with a 500 bucks telescope and ends with hubble.

IMO the first thing you should buy is a book called "The Backyard Astronomer's Guide". It answers most of the questions you're likely to ask, including some you might not have thought of yet. The same information can be had online but the book really is a neat introduction to the whole thing. It also makes a nifty coffee table piece, which is tricky to do with a web site.

Venturing further into Opinion Country... You really don't have to spend a lot of money to get going, but if that's not much of a concern then yeah, this is the kind of hobby where you can basically spend as much as you like. One thing I will say, which is at odds with what you'll hear from the old guard, is that buying a scope without computer tracking in 2009 is like buying a black & white TV. It has nothing to do with being lazy or unable to find things yourself. It's just a matter of function. Picture this scenario...

"Hey <honey/buddy/neighbor> take a look at this!"
"What? I don't see anything?"
"Oh, that's because it moved out of the field in the time it took you to walk over here. While I try to find it again, you stand there and rapidly lose interest..."

 

Computerized Goto mounts will locate and slew to the object for you which can speed things up on those nights you might not have a lot of time and want to find multiple targets. IMHO, to many people have learned to rely on this becoming less and less familiar with learning how to navigate the sky on their own. Motorized tracking does however make observing more comfortable and a little easier when you don't have to continuously readjust the telescope to keep the object within the field of view through the eyepiece. Especially useful at high magnifications like those typically used for planetary observing. (it's really not as hard as it sounds when you gain more experience). Nonetheless, you don't need the more expensive computerized tracking (GoTo) in order to have a mount that is capable of tracking to make your observing sessions more comfortable. All you need is a mount such as an EQ with a single axis drive motor for the RA Axis. If however you wish to take up an interest in astrophotography then I would suggest Dual Axis Drives. This is a much less expensive and common alternative for many. ... Whether for strictly observational use or eventual photographic uses as well, either way you can always buy the mount and telescope without motor drives now, then upgrade with the motors at a later date. At this point I suggest as many will, put your money where you will get the most bang for your buck, more importantly get something that will satisfy you.

Northern:

 So you can actually see nice stuff with a 150-200 bucks telescope? I always thought it BEGINS with a 500 bucks telescope and ends with hubble.

What you can or cannot see isn't necessarily a matter of how much you spend, but a matter of aperture and condition of the skies you're observing from. Well ok how much you spend does have an effect on how large a telescope you get. What kind of mount you get will also determine what size telescope you can get within your budget. For $150 -$200 bucks if you get a motorized mount you're not going to get very much aperture in your telescope and your not going to see very much and might not be happy with it. Especially if your expectations are to see object like what you see in all those nice pictures. Even black and white with various shades of very faint gray you probably won't see anything that resembles astro-images. Ain't gona happen that way. Not only will you not see the color like you see in the pictures, but how bright, large and sharp you see the object is a matter of two things. Magnification and Resolving power both of which are directly related to the aperture of the telescope. Larger aperture means that you have the ability to use more magnification, and larger aperture has a greater resolving power to allow you to see more detail.

Here are some informative websites dealing with choosing a telescope that you may want to consult:

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=ss&id=9

http://skyandtelescope.com/howto/scopes/article_241_1.asp

http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html

http://www.floridastars.org/telescop.html

http://www.company7.com/library/begin.html

http://www.quadibloc.com/science/opt0201.htm

http://starizona.com/acb/basics/equipmentbasics.aspx

http://starizona.com/acb/basics/equip_whichisbest.aspx

http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers/telescope.html

http://www.skynewsmagazine.com/images/nd05/tipsforfirsttelescopebuyers.pdf

http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-C0D-504D19B-39CA3E80-prod5

See http://www.skynewsmagazine.com/PDF/ND2002.pdf for an article on what the author considers to be the ten best telescopes for under $1,000.

Dave Mitsky

 I see. Thanks for the links and the info. It helped.

In as much as I'm probably one of the noobiest guys wandering around this site at this point, I'd like to offer my $.02 here.

I spend around $400 on my scope, and I LOVE it. It was fairly easy to put together, I don't have much trouble setting it up to observe, it is small and light enough to take out to dark sites when I have an opportunity to do so. I can see planets very well with it. (As has been mentioned, don't expect your view to match that of the pictures that come from the Hubble...but it is COOL to see them) I have seen several deep sky objects with it.

What did I get? 100MM Refractor with EQ mount. No electronics. As has been mentioned, I may add them later, but for now, I want to experience the whole thing, the finding the objects I want to view, as well as tracking them. It really isn't that hard once you get the hang of it. The one thing that you have probably already read over and over again, "the best scope you can buy is one that you will take out there and use"!!!

Good luck with whatever you wind up getting, and I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have enjoyed mine!!!

First off, Northern, welcome to what will hopefully be a long and rewarding love for this great hobby!

I thought I might mention, the link above to the SkyNews article on Best Scopes for Under $1,000 was broken.  After poking around a bit, I found the link.  It can be found here:

http://www.skynewsmagazine.com/PDFs/BestTelescopesUnder1000.pdf

You most certainly do not have to spend a lot of money to get into this hobby and enjoy it.  For the first years I observed, I used an old pair of 7x35 binoculars and later a homebrew 3.5" refractor mounted on old wooden crutch legs!  Don't laugh, it was quite a little performer and I wish I still had it!

What I would recommend are a couple of things: first, do a little exploring and see if there's an astronomy club that gets together near where you are located.  These clubs often hold public events such as "star parties" where you can go, meet and talk with enthused amateurs and even look through a wide variety of different instruments.

Secondly, pick up a good beginner's guide to astronomy.  Two I can recommend highly are  The Backyard Astronomer's Guide and Turn Left At Orion.  TBAG is in its third edition I believe, and is an excellent book for giving you an easy-to-read introduction to the hobby.  The author provides some history, advice in choosing instruments, and good field techniques.  You can't go wrong with this one.  TLAO will introduce you to the art of "star-hopping" and learning your way around the night sky.  Even if you eventually get one of the newer, computerized scopes, knowing your way around the stars is an invaluable skill and will enrich your enjoyment of the hobby tenfold, I assure you.

When you finally do commit to wanting to get a scope, carefully consider all your options. Price is a big factor, but there's also portability, ease of use, where you'll be routinely observing from, what you want to realistically accomplish (both in an immediate sense as well as more long-term goals), etc.  These will help you narrow your list of candidates until you hit upon the one that right for you.

Most of all, remember to have fun!  It's not everyone who gets a front row seat to the best show in the whole universe, so relax and enjoy!

 One additional note:  that list of "Best Scopes Under $1,000", while having some good general advice about selecting a scope, is a bit dated.

 It was compiled as a "shopping list" of sorts for Christmas 2002.  The prices listed are off a bit (thankfully, most of them have actually come down, even if you concede they used Canadian dollars in the article.)  GoTo scopes have been reduced in price, as has some of the small-to-medium ED refractors.  We're in something of a "sweet spot" right now where good quality optics can be had without breaking the bank.

Just approach the article with that in the back of your mind.  There's a few instruments that I'm aware of that are conspicuous by their absence.

For that matter, most of the links that I supplied are dated. With the advent of China becoming such a big player, the amateur astronomy market has been in a constant state of flux.

Dave Mitsky

great advice from all of the above, i kinda liked the thread on - 'see what?'- oh i guess it moved out of the FOV!! so my advice is, go to a star party, even if you have to travel, so your aware of the 'disadvantages' of each type of telescope