Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway
Question
Asked 27 January 2017
Which is the best manufacturing company for astronomical telescopes?
I would like to purchase a good grade telescope to watch sky. Can anyone help in identifying best astronomical telescope manufacturer.
Most recent answer
Since the 1990s, the vast majority of amateur telescopes have been made in China or Taiwan, and sold under various brand names in different territories. (Japan held that role up to the 1980s).
The big Chinese manufacturers include Synta, and Kunming's United Optics - the latter are a bit higher in quality in my experience. Taiwanese manufacturers include GSO (Guan Sheng Optical) and William Optics - both are very good in quality.
In North America, these products end up under the Orion, Celestron, Meade, Astro Tech, Explore Scientific, iOptron, and other brand names. In Europe, and sometimes Canada, they are also sold as Skywatcher, Bresser, TS (Teleskop Service), Altair, and more.
If you are starting off in amateur sky watching, there are very good telescopes to be found in all those lines.
With more money comes more choice, and that final extra 5-10% of optical and mechanical quality. Higher end products come from more diverse sources, and are usually actually made by the business which brands them. Examples include the catadioptric telescopes from Meade and Celestron (USA), the Maksutov telescopes from Intes and Intes Micro (Russia), and apochromatic refractors from many manufacturers such as Takahashi, Vixen and Borg (Japan); TeleVue, TEC and Astro-Physics (USA); TMB and APM (Germany); and Officina Stellare (Italy).
This is a slightly dated but still good list, ranking telescopes by type and price bracket:
6 Recommendations
Popular answers (1)
Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway
Since the 1990s, the vast majority of amateur telescopes have been made in China or Taiwan, and sold under various brand names in different territories. (Japan held that role up to the 1980s).
The big Chinese manufacturers include Synta, and Kunming's United Optics - the latter are a bit higher in quality in my experience. Taiwanese manufacturers include GSO (Guan Sheng Optical) and William Optics - both are very good in quality.
In North America, these products end up under the Orion, Celestron, Meade, Astro Tech, Explore Scientific, iOptron, and other brand names. In Europe, and sometimes Canada, they are also sold as Skywatcher, Bresser, TS (Teleskop Service), Altair, and more.
If you are starting off in amateur sky watching, there are very good telescopes to be found in all those lines.
With more money comes more choice, and that final extra 5-10% of optical and mechanical quality. Higher end products come from more diverse sources, and are usually actually made by the business which brands them. Examples include the catadioptric telescopes from Meade and Celestron (USA), the Maksutov telescopes from Intes and Intes Micro (Russia), and apochromatic refractors from many manufacturers such as Takahashi, Vixen and Borg (Japan); TeleVue, TEC and Astro-Physics (USA); TMB and APM (Germany); and Officina Stellare (Italy).
This is a slightly dated but still good list, ranking telescopes by type and price bracket:
6 Recommendations
All Answers (5)
European Commission
Hi,
I could not find the Best scopes for the money on Space.com.
That is at least not staright forward. But using Google gives this page:
and many more.
I am an amateur astronomer and actually Donald's suggestion is correct to go for a Dobsonian telscope. You get an 8 inch diamter scope for little money. This gives a lot to see and explore in the sky. Also of imnportance is to have a good sky map (or planetarium program) to understand where to find what in the sky.
Gadgets like automatic pointing of the scope are also available for Dobsonians, It is very handy if you have no clue where to find e.g. Mars or M1.
However I would nevertheless also recommend to get a decent map and try with the naked eye to identify the constellations and get around in the sky.
Josch
1 Recommendation
There are a lot of ads showing different telescopes available in Sky and Telescope magazine and, like Donald says, Orion is a good source.
Josch's suggestion to learn the constellations is spot on. You'll have fun doing it and get more out of using your telescope. At least, that's been my experience.
Kent
Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway
Since the 1990s, the vast majority of amateur telescopes have been made in China or Taiwan, and sold under various brand names in different territories. (Japan held that role up to the 1980s).
The big Chinese manufacturers include Synta, and Kunming's United Optics - the latter are a bit higher in quality in my experience. Taiwanese manufacturers include GSO (Guan Sheng Optical) and William Optics - both are very good in quality.
In North America, these products end up under the Orion, Celestron, Meade, Astro Tech, Explore Scientific, iOptron, and other brand names. In Europe, and sometimes Canada, they are also sold as Skywatcher, Bresser, TS (Teleskop Service), Altair, and more.
If you are starting off in amateur sky watching, there are very good telescopes to be found in all those lines.
With more money comes more choice, and that final extra 5-10% of optical and mechanical quality. Higher end products come from more diverse sources, and are usually actually made by the business which brands them. Examples include the catadioptric telescopes from Meade and Celestron (USA), the Maksutov telescopes from Intes and Intes Micro (Russia), and apochromatic refractors from many manufacturers such as Takahashi, Vixen and Borg (Japan); TeleVue, TEC and Astro-Physics (USA); TMB and APM (Germany); and Officina Stellare (Italy).
This is a slightly dated but still good list, ranking telescopes by type and price bracket:
6 Recommendations
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