Best telescopes for beginners 2024: blast off into stargazing

Looking to dip your toes into the vast expanse of astronomy? Look no further than our roundup of the best beginner telescopes. We've combed through the cosmos of product listings to bring you top-notch options suitable for budding astronomers of all ages – even those still working on mastering multiplication tables.

If you're ready to graduate to more advanced stargazing, our general best telescope ranking awaits your perusal. And for those who prefer wildlife over constellations, we have a separate guide for the best binoculars for nature enthusiasts.

The fascination with stargazing hasn't faded away with the lockdown (thankfully). And the best part? You don't have to break the bank to embark on this celestial journey – as long as you choose your starter kit wisely. So, let's blast off into the world of beginner telescopes and uncover the wonders of the universe without needing NASA's budget.

Our top choice for the best beginner telescope right now is Celestron's AstroMaster 102AZ. It's an excellent entry-level option that cuts surprisingly few corners. For those who like a touch of modernity, the premium Unistellar Odyssey is the telescope to get. On a budget? You need the National Geographic 60/700 AZ, made by Bresser.

Best telescopes for beginners to buy right now

Best overall

Which little kid hasn't dreamed of growing up to become an 'AstroMaster'? With this affordable refractor scope aimed at budding astrologers – that can also be used for terrestrial viewing – now we all can live that dream. Key features include a whopping 102mm objective lens and generous 660mm maximum focal length; the kind of reach that will enable us to seek out Saturn's rings and Jupiter's moons. 

Beginner friendly features include the fact that it can be set up from scratch without the need for tools of any kind, and, like most in its price bracket, usefully includes a steel tripod, accessory tray and manual. Allowing for impromptu observations from the back garden as well as the back window, it's deemed portable enough to be picked up and transported in a jiffy.

That said, at 6.4kg in weight the AstroMaster not the most lightweight option out there. Nevertheless its altazimuth mount and pan handle set up allows objects in the night sky to be quickly located and tracked. Also included are 10mm and 20mm eyepieces, a red dot finder scope and Starry Night astronomy software, making for a sound starter package.

Read our full Celestron AstroMaster 102AZ review.

Best premium

The Unistellar Odyssey is a highly advanced smart telescope that offers a balance between affordability and cutting-edge features, making it an excellent choice for amateur astronomers.

Positioned as a mid-range option, it excels in urban environments where light pollution is an issue, thanks to its powerful 85mm aperture and sophisticated imaging technology.

The telescope's design eliminates the need for manual adjustments, automating the process of capturing and enhancing images of deep-sky objects, making astrophotography accessible even to beginners.

However, while the Odyssey shines in most areas, it has some drawbacks. Its performance in planetary imaging is underwhelming, with some images lacking detail. The five-hour battery life is also relatively short, and the proprietary tripod and charging cable add unnecessary costs.

Despite these minor issues, the Odyssey's ease of use, robust build quality, and ability to produce stunning images of celestial objects make it a standout in the smart telescope market, particularly for those who don’t want to invest in more expensive, high-end models.

Read our full Unistellar Odyssey review.

Best budget

Offering a generous 700mm focal length and up to a whopping 525x magnification, even if 120x is at the limits of what's practically recommended, this National Geographic branded scope is, in fact, manufactured by the respected Bresser. It comes bundled with astronomy software and weighs a very manageable and beginner-friendly 3.3kg.

Featuring a 60mm objective lens to let in a decent amount of light and boost the clarity of its images, the scope is bundled with all the accessories an amateur would arguably need – including a selection of 4mm, 12.5mm and 20mm eyepieces, plus three Barlow lenses to vary the magnification on offer. 

The altazimuth mount provided here allows for easy tracking of objects in the night sky, with the entire system capable of being assembled quickly and without requiring tools. Colour accuracy comes via an achromatic lens, which refracts light without dispersing it into its constituent colours, therefore providing images with greater accuracy.

While build quality might not be up there with the very best, for the price, this offers plenty of opportunity to shoot for the Moon – and beyond – with a five-year warranty providing enough peace of mind for a trip to Mars and back. 

See how this compares to another good beginners' scope in our Celestron 21039 PowerSeeker 50AZ vs National Geographic Refractor 60/700 AZ face-off.

Best manual

There's a lot to Celestron's StarSense Explorer 8-inch Dobsonian that should rightly scare off inexperienced stargazers, particularly its 8-inch/203 mm aperture, which ought to require an intimate familiarity with the night sky, and the fact that it has to be manually operated. And then there's its price point, which is well above what most beginners might want to pay.

However, if you don't mind spending more than you anticipated, you'll find that this is a brilliant telescope for beginners and more experienced astronomers alike, and it all comes down to Celestron's StarSense app.

With this installed on your phone and your phone fitted into the Explorer's smartphone mount, finding celestial bodied becomes an absolute breeze. The app studies a reflection of what the telescope can see through a small mirror, then cross-references with its database, and from there, it can guide you towards whatever you want to look at.

And what you'll see through its 48x eyepiece is amazing; this telescope's a total light bucket, and it'll show you details of the night sky you wouldn't believe. 

Read our full Celestron StarSense Explorer 8" Dobsonian telescope review.

Best mid-range

Aiming to deliver detail in the dark via a 76mm objective lens, the beginner-friendly Orion SpaceProbe II telescope comes with the addition of a 2x Barlow lens, doubling the magnification of both included eyepieces. This provides a generous 56x magnification on the standard 25mm eyepiece rather than 28x and a whopping 140x on the 10x eyepiece rather than 70x. 

While most starter scopes are suitable for observing the Moon and not a lot else in the sky, when the eyepieces are combined with its core 700mm focal length, this one can drag bright nebulae and star clusters into its orbit and comes with a Star Target 'planisphere', Moon Map and beginners' guide book to direct our attention accurately. A mini flashlight is also included in the kit to save fumbling around in the dark for attachments, while the included tripod allows for steady-as-she-goes tracking of objects of interest.

In short, there's enough here to quickly get amateur stargazers conducting their own deep space 'probes'. Be sure to look out for the version that provides an upgraded Equatorial or 'EQ' mount rather than the Altazimuth mount of earlier versions.

Best for sharp images

If you want a beginner's telescope that'll set you up for moving on to more advanced options at a later date, the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is one that's easy to use but will teach you useful skills and get you used to navigating the sky yourself rather than have everything done for you.

Unlike many beginner options, this is a completely manual scope that you'll have to aim yourself and keep adjusting as objects move in the night sky, but it comes with a smartphone mount and a companion app that makes it relatively simple to find whatever you want to look at.

We found that setting it up from scratch takes about 15 minutes, and while the app takes a little time to get used to, it does a great job of guiding you without holding your hand too much.

Beginners may initially be a little fazed by the fact that its Newtonian reflector shows you everything upside down, which can feel counterintuitive at first, but it's all worth it when you see the results, which are lovely and sharp, even through the relatively basic eyepieces.

Read our full Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ review.

Best for solar system observations

The AstroMaster 70AZ is the baby of Celestron’s comprehensive AstroMaster series, but it’s also the best-selling telescope in the range, probably because it’s good for beginners. It’s an achromatic refractor telescope, so it uses a lens on the front to form an image, and it has an alt-azimuth mount.

While most telescopes of this type and size are fairly small, the AstroMaster 70AZ’s tube is a whopping 35 inches/900 mm long. That gives it a focal ratio of f/13, which means it purposely lets in a lot less lighting than some of its rivals and thus avoids letting in false colour, but it does limit the telescope’s useful range to our own solar system. 

The kit tripod can be set up at two different heights, and the AstroMaster 70AZ comes with two Kellner eyepieces (20mm for wide-angle views and 10mm for close-ups) as well as a StarPointer red-dot finderscope for getting targets roughly into the telescope’s field of view. Also included is an image diagonal, which enables you to look through the telescope while standing over the eyepiece. 

It's an incredibly easy telescope to set up, but unfortunately, the AstroMaster 70AZ lacks accuracy. There's nothing wrong with its tripod, but even with a bright moon in its crosshairs, the AstroMaster 70AZ seems incapable of staying still.

Although it does come fitted with one small hand control for fine-tuning, the way the telescope is fixed into position isn't intuitive enough, nor is it solid enough. As a result, the AstroMaster 70AZ tends to recoil when at rest, making any attempt to get a target still in the eyepiece a tricky task that needs repeating way too much.

Read our full Celestron AstroMaster 70AZ review.

Best portable

When it comes to telescopes aimed at consumers, Celestron is one of the biggest players in the market, so it's unsurprising that it has an option squarely aimed at beginners – and by that, we mean one suitable for both children and adults. This get-up-and-go, the travel-friendly device features a decent spec too, including 400mm focal length plus a fully-coated 70mm objective lens to allow plenty of light in, a lightweight frame at a total weight of 1.5kg, plus a backpack to transport it, while set up is as quick and easy as expected.

Two 10mm and 20mm eyepieces are supplied, offering either 20x or 40x magnification and providing crisp and clear low or high-powered views of celestial objects at night or, alternately, terrestrial ones during the day. The Celestron Travel Scope comes with free software and a two-year warranty for additional peace of mind, while assembly once again doesn't require any tools.

How to choose the best beginner telescope for you

When it comes to choosing the best telescopes for beginners, first decide on what you want them for. For example, are you happy to merely observe the Moon, or do you actually want to delve into deep space? Next, set a budget, therefore enabling you to narrow choices and focus on the best option available at that price.

Figuring out how far a telescope can see can get confusing, but generally, you'd expect most beginner scopes to provide decent views of our moon, allowing you to pick out the grey 'seas' on its surface as well as, more clearly, the Tycho crater near its base, along with the geographical streaks and surface scars leading up to it. But many of the cheapest telescopes will struggle to get results far beyond that. Bear in mind, too, that the construction of beginner telescopes may well be more plastic-y in trying to hit a certain price point than more professional models.

Apart from budget and operability, two terms that crop up often when researching the best telescopes for beginners are 'reflectors' and 'refractors'. Our types of telescope explainer goes into more detail, but in broad terms, refractor telescopes are best suited for observing planets and the Moon, while reflectors are generally believed to be more adept at seeking out deep sky objects. Something else to bear in mind when deciding whether a scope is truly the best for beginners. 

Finally, if you're flushed with cash and happy to pay a lot more for a telescope that basically does all the hard work for you, you could go for a so-called 'smart' telescope. This is a device that automatically aligns with the stars, tracks and stacks images and sends them to your smartphone while you take it easy on the sofa. There are a few picks in our best beginner telescope ranking that fall into this category.

Head to our article on how to choose your first telescope for more in-depth advice. Once you've made your decision, our guides on how to set up a telescope for observing the night sky and what to aim your telescope at should help you with the next step.

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