Wondering about a first telescope to get?

The world of astronomy as a hobby suffers from the same problem that most of our consumer oriented world suffers from: Too many darn choices! If you are interested in doing a little astronomy and would like to buy a telescope you are faced with thousands of scopes to choose from. So, unless you know a fair amount about telescopes already, what do you do?

What telescope should be your first one? Or your only one for that matter?

You don't know a lot about the mechanics of telescopes right? Optics, exit pupil, light gathering power, magnification, alt-azimuth mount? etc. etc. etc. So what telescope should you buy as a first telescope. Cost a factor? What kind of value can you get when you are not sure about what defines value?

The Edmund Scientific Astroscan telescope has been a best selling introductory telescope for over 25 years now. This is a uniquely designed telescope that is just so easy to use and so remarkably powerful for an amazing price. The Astroscan at Edmund Scientific

I have used one of these and I have to say that it is just an amazing little telescope. It is very easy to use, has a nice 4 1/4 inch mirror for good light gathering power, comes with two different eyepieces, and most importantly gives a very rich and a very wide view of the night sky. This makes it very easy to use. One of the biggest hurdles any would-be astronomer faces is the tunnel that is created when looking through a telescope. It's kind of like trying to find things through a narrow tube. You have to hunt around. But with the incredibly wide field of this telescope the problem disappears.

It's small and compact which makes it easy to take anywhere and you just put it on its little base and you are ready to start looking at the moon, planets or other objects in the night sky. This picture gives you a sense of the size of it.

The optics of this telescope, which is what really matters, are outstanding. Edmund Scientific has been making high quality optics for decades now and you get maximum value for your dollar from this telescope.

The Road you take after this scope

As an introduction to astronomy the astroscan is pretty much perfect for all the reasons I have outlined and it may bring you to the desire to buy a bigger and better (more expensive) telescope. And that is a road that I have gone down but if you are a casual astronomer you may be perfectly happy with this scope for many years to come. And I wanted to point out that Edmund makes a nice selection of accessories that will enhance your scope and your astronomy experience. This tripod is a good point in case. It's specifically designed for the astroscan. The Tripod at Edmund Scientific

The Astroscan Totebag

About Eyepieces

The Astroscan packages come with eyepieces and the scope takes standard 1 1/4" eyepieces so you can easily buy more in the future. The eyepieces determine the magnification of what you see. So if you want to zoom in closer to objects you purchase new eyepieces.

Just a wonderful package for the would be astronomer or the person who is just curious about doing some astronomy but doesn't want to shell out the big bucks.

You don't know much about telescopes but want to buy your first one? Here is my recommendation

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