The Best Telescopes for Beginners in 2026
Ready to go beyond binoculars? Choosing your first telescope can feel overwhelming—there are dozens of options and a lot of confusing jargon. I've helped hundreds of beginners pick their first scope, and this guide distills everything into a simple decision: what do you want to see, and what's your budget?
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1. The Three Types of Telescopes
Before we talk specific models, you need to understand the three main types:
**Refractor** — Uses lenses. Simple to use, low maintenance, great for planets and the Moon. Typically more expensive per inch of aperture.
**Reflector (Dobsonian)** — Uses mirrors. Best value for aperture. Excellent for deep sky objects. Requires occasional collimation (alignment of mirrors).
**Compound (SCT/Maksutov)** — Combines lenses and mirrors. Compact and portable. Good all-around, but more expensive.
**My recommendation for beginners:** A 6" or 8" Dobsonian reflector. Maximum aperture for the money, simple to use, and you'll never outgrow it.
2. Best Beginner Telescopes by Budget
Here are my top picks at each price point:
Celestron StarSense Explorer 114AZ
RecommendedUses your smartphone to find objects—point the scope, and the app tells you what you're looking at. Perfect for absolute beginners who want instant gratification.
Apertura AD8 Dobsonian
Recommended8 inches of light-gathering power at an unbeatable price. Outstanding optics, smooth motion, and accessories included. The best 'serious' beginner scope.
Sky-Watcher 6" Dobsonian
If the AD8 is too big or expensive, this 6" version is excellent. Still shows incredible detail on planets and hundreds of deep sky objects.
Celestron NexStar 6SE
Computerized GoTo mount finds objects automatically. Compact, portable, and versatile. Great for planets and brighter deep sky objects.
Orion SpaceProbe 130ST
Budget reflector with a short tube design for easy portability. Good optics for the price, though mount is basic.
3. Essential Accessories
Your telescope should come with at least one eyepiece, but you'll want these additions:
Celestron X-Cel LX Eyepiece Set
Three quality eyepieces (9mm, 18mm, 25mm) that cover low, medium, and high magnification. Huge upgrade from kit eyepieces.
Telrad Finder
Projects a bullseye on the sky for easy object location. Works better than finderscopes for beginners.
Turn Left at Orion (Book)
RecommendedThe essential guidebook. Tells you exactly what to look at each month and how to find it. Pairs perfectly with any telescope.
Celestron Moon Filter
The Moon is BRIGHT through a telescope—uncomfortably so. A simple filter dims it to comfortable levels and reveals more detail.
4. What You'll Actually See
Let me set realistic expectations:
**The Moon** — Incredible detail. Individual craters, mountain ranges, the shadows at the terminator. This alone justifies a telescope.
**Planets** — Jupiter's cloud bands and Great Red Spot. Saturn's rings (truly magical). Mars's polar ice caps during opposition.
**Deep Sky Objects** — The Orion Nebula as a glowing cloud. The Andromeda Galaxy as a fuzzy elongated patch. Star clusters like the Pleiades filling your eyepiece with diamonds.
**What you WON'T see** — Hubble-quality color images. That's astrophotography, not visual observing. Through the eyepiece, most nebulae and galaxies appear as faint gray smudges. Managing expectations is key to enjoying visual astronomy.
**Pro tip:** Use our [Dark Sky Map](/dashboard) to find a Bortle 4 or darker site. A small telescope under dark skies beats a large telescope in a city.
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