Beginner Telescopes

At PicStop we offer a diverse range, and many of these telescopes ideal for beginners to astronomy. We've tried to make this choice simpler for you, with useful hints and tips on how to select the best telescope for a beginner from leading brands such as Celestron, Skywatcher and National Geographic.

To help select the best beginners telescope for you, here are a few hints: telescopes fall into two major optical designs: reflectors and refractors. Reflector telescopes, use an internal primary and smaller, secondary mirror to focus the light into the eyepiece in order to create an image. Meanwhile, Refractor telescopes, make use of lenses to focus the light into the eyepiece. In other words, reflectors reflect light, while refractors tend to bend - or refract - it. Some telescopes are more powerful and make the most of the mirrors and lenses, they're known as Maksutov-Cassegrains, Schmidt-Cassegrains or catadioptric telescopes. These have a narrow field of view and tend to have a higher magnification, resulting in more detail being visible in the object you are observing.

In general terms, a Refractor Telescope is a great choice for beginners wanting to observe objects in our solar system, such as the moon and planets, plus bright, deep-sky objects like the Orion Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy. While Reflector Telescopes tends to be larger and gather more light as they have larger apertures, so are better placed for capturing faint galaxies and faint nebulae. Refractor Telescopes are generally cheaper telescopes than reflector telescopes, allowing you to purchase an affordable Telescope with a decent-sized aperture. Whatever your astronomy knowledge, experience or budget, we will have a suitable telescope for beginners to astronomy.

- Aperture: Diameter of the primary mirror or lens, which allows a telescope to collect light.
- Field of view: Area of the night sky visible through the eyepiece.
- Focal length: This is the telescope's tube length. Short focal length offers a wide field of view and a small image.
- Magnification: Relationship between the telescope's optical system and the eyepiece. 

To see our entire telescopes collection please click here.

We also have some beginner telescope reviews from real users - here, these can help you to choose the most suitable telescope for you. Below is a list of some of the more popular and suitable beginner telescopes.

Celestron Firstscope 76
Celestron Travel Scope 70 Telescope
Celestron Astromaster 70AZ Astro Telescope
National Geographic 50/360 Refractor Telescope AZ with Table Tripod
Celestron Astromaster 114EQ Astro Telescope