TIL I chose a cheap telescope over a decent pair of binoculars and regretted it instantly

Was at a star party last summer and had like $200 to spend. Everyone said get binoculars for wide field stuff but I wanted that classic scope look. Picked up a $180 refractor from some brand I'd never heard of. First night out I could barely see Jupiter as a dot. My buddy had a $120 pair of Celestron binoculars and was picking out galaxies in Andromeda. Sold the scope on Craigslist the next week. Anyone else make the wrong call on their first purchase?

2 comments

2 Comments

harris.uma1d ago

Tbh the aperture size matters way more than the zoom factor once you get below a certain budget. The scope just couldn't gather enough light to show you anything useful.

wadeg921d agoMost Upvoted

My 130mm f/5 reflector on a Dobsonian mount was only $250 new and it pulls in way more light than any $300 zoom scope I've seen. At that price point you're usually stuck with a 70mm or 80mm aperture on a cheap tripod that shakes if you sneeze. I can see Jupiter's bands clearly on a decent night and the Orion Nebula is actually a fuzzy cloud instead of just a faint smudge. The zoom factor on those cheap scopes is usually just digital cropping anyway so you lose detail fast. You're way better off getting a bigger mirror and learning to find things manually with a red dot finder.