Best Telescopes for Adults in 2026: 10 Picks from Manual Dobsonians to Smart Telescopes

The best telescope for most adults is the Sky-Watcher Classic 200P, an 8-inch Dobsonian that gathers about 840 times the light of your eye for $629 to $725 and needs no power or app. If you want a phone to point you at targets, choose the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ. If you want motors that find and track, choose the NexStar 6SE. If you want colour photos of nebulae on your phone instead of an eyepiece view, choose the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro smart telescope. Under $300, choose the StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ or the Heritage 130P.

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The finder below sorts the ten picks by your experience, budget, storage space and how much of the work you want the telescope to do. The quick picks table follows it.

What is a good telescope for adults?

A good telescope for adults has at least 130 mm of aperture, a mount that holds the tube still, a finding method that matches how much work you want to do and a size that fits where you live. Toy-store refractors of 60 mm to 70 mm fail on the first two counts. They show the Moon and little else, and their thin tripods shake at every touch.

Adults buy differently from parents shopping for a child. The budget is usually larger, there is patience to learn a scope that grows with you and the real constraints are storage space, how much you can carry down a flight of stairs and how many free evenings you have. Those constraints decide the right telescope more often than optics do.

The hardest part of a first telescope is finding things. Most of the sky’s best targets are invisible to the naked eye, and a printed star chart takes weeks to learn. Every pick in this guide answers that problem in one of four ways, and that choice is the first one to make.

How hands-on do you want to be?

Telescopes for adults now fall on a ladder from fully manual to fully automatic. Each step up costs more per millimetre of aperture and needs more batteries, and each step down asks more of you at the eyepiece.

Level	You do	Power
Manual	Find and follow targets	None
App-guided	Follow phone arrows, nudge to track	Phone only
GoTo	Align once, pick from a list	Batteries or 12V
Smart	Tap a target, watch the phone	Built-in battery

Manual: a Dobsonian you aim yourself

A manual Dobsonian is a large mirror in a tube that sits on a wooden rocker base. You push it to the target and nudge it every minute or so as the sky turns. Nothing needs charging and nothing needs aligning, so it is ready the moment it cools. This design gives the most aperture per dollar: the Classic 200P puts 203 mm under $750. The cost is learning the sky with a chart or an app on your phone, which most adults manage within a few clear nights.

App-guided: a phone shows the way

Celestron’s StarSense Explorer scopes have a dock that holds your phone on the tube. The phone’s camera reads the star field, and the app draws arrows until the target sits in the eyepiece. There are no motors and no alignment stars, and the telescope itself needs no power. It removes the finding problem for about $125 to $250 more than the same optics without the dock. You still move the tube by hand to follow the target.

GoTo: motors find and track

A GoTo telescope has a computerised mount. After a short alignment on two or three bright stars it slews to any of thousands of objects and tracks them, so a planet stays centred at high power while you study it or show it to a guest. The NexStar 127SLT, 6SE and 8SE run on 8 AA batteries or a 12V supply, and the batteries run down fast on a cold night. GoTo suits adults who want to spend their observing time looking rather than searching.

Smart: the telescope does everything

A smart telescope has no eyepiece. It finds the target, tracks it and builds a photograph that you watch on your phone. It is the easiest way to see the colour of a nebula and the hardest way to see a planet in detail. The next section covers how it works and who should buy one.

What is a smart telescope?

A smart telescope is a small refractor, a camera sensor, a motorised mount, a battery and a computer in one sealed unit, controlled by an app on your phone. You do not look through it. The Seestar S30 Pro and the Dwarf 3 in this guide weigh 1.3 kg to 1.65 kg, cost $499 to $888 and set themselves up in about five minutes.

How a smart telescope works

You set the unit on a level surface and open the app. It photographs the sky, matches the stars to a catalogue to learn where it is pointing, then turns to the target you tap. It takes exposures of about 10 to 20 seconds each and adds them together as they arrive, a process called live stacking. Each new frame lowers the noise, so a faint grey smudge becomes a coloured nebula over 10 to 30 minutes. Built-in light-pollution filters let this work from a city balcony where an eyepiece shows almost nothing.

What a smart telescope shows, in pixels

Each smart telescope has a fixed magnification set by its focal length and the size of its sensor pixels. We worked out the sky covered by one pixel and the size of common targets in the final image.

Target	Seestar S30 Pro	Dwarf 3
Sky per pixel	3.7″	2.8″
Jupiter (45″)	12 px wide	16 px wide
Full Moon	480 px wide	650 px wide
Field of view	4.0° x 2.2°	2.9° x 1.6°

Both sensors are 3,840 pixels wide. Jupiter covers 12 to 16 of them: a small disc with its four moons beside it and no visible belts worth the name. Through the eyepiece of an 8-inch Dobsonian at 200x the same planet spans about 2.5°, roughly five full Moons as the naked eye sees one, with belts and storms in view. For planets, a smart telescope is the wrong tool.

For large deep-sky targets the numbers favour the smart scope. The Andromeda Galaxy is about 3° long and fits whole in the Seestar’s frame. The Orion Nebula, the Lagoon and the North America Nebula fill the frame in colour. Small galaxies such as M51 come out as small ovals that need cropping.

Is a smart telescope worth it?

A smart telescope is worth it if you live under a bright sky, want pictures to keep and share, have little storage space, or have tried a manual telescope and given up on finding things. It is not worth it if you want to put your eye to an eyepiece and see Saturn’s rings with your own eye, or if planets are the main reason you are buying.

Aperture explains the trade. The Classic 200P’s mirror collects about 46 times the light of the Seestar’s 30 mm lens. The smart scope makes up the difference with time and a sensor, and the eyepiece scope delivers it instantly to your eye. Both are real astronomy. They are different hobbies.

Smart telescope vs traditional telescope

Question	Smart	Eyepiece
How you see it	Phone screen	Your own eye
Planets	Tiny discs	Belts, rings, phases
Nebulae in colour	Yes	Grey to the eye
City skies	Works well	Bright targets only
Setup	5 minutes	5 to 45 minutes
Storage	A shoebox	A closet to a garage
Power	Charge before use	None to 12V

Many adults end up owning one of each: a smart telescope for nebula photos on weeknights from home, and an eyepiece telescope for the Moon and planets.

Seestar S50 and other smart telescopes

The Seestar S50, the $499 model most reviews cover, is out of stock at ZWO’s own store as of October 2026 and does not show up in Amazon search. The S50 Pro costs $999 to $1,098. The Seestar S30 Pro takes the S50’s place here: a newer triplet lens, a wider field for large nebulae and a battery that lasts about six hours. Vaonis’s Vespera 3 and Celestron’s Origin produce sharper images but cost $2,000 or more. The Dwarf Mini weighs under a kilogram and is too limited to recommend as an adult’s main telescope.

How much should an adult spend on a telescope?

Spend $250 to $750 on a first telescope. That range covers every finding method and apertures from 80 mm to 203 mm. Above $1,000 you pay for GoTo motors and compact optics, not for more aperture: the $1,699 NexStar 8SE has the same 203 mm as the $629 Classic 200P.

• Under $300: the StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ (app-guided) and the Heritage 130P (manual tabletop).
• $300 to $599: the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ and the Dwarf 3. The NexStar 127SLT often drops into this tier on sale.
• $600 to $999: the Classic 200P, the StarSense Explorer 8″ Dobsonian, the Seestar S30 Pro and the NexStar 127SLT at list price.
• $1,000 and up: the NexStar 6SE and 8SE.

Set aside $50 to $100 for extras. A GoTo scope needs a battery pack, a Dobsonian benefits from a collimator and most kits ship with one or two basic eyepieces. Below $250 the choice narrows to small scopes for the Moon and bright planets, covered in our budget telescope guide.

Storage space and weight

A telescope that is hard to carry outside stops being used. Before choosing on aperture, check where the scope will live and how far it travels to the sky. The finder’s Space and carry question rates each pick for three cases.

• Small apartment: under about 9 kg and short enough for a closet shelf. The smart scopes, the Heritage 130P, the LT 80AZ and the NexStar 127SLT qualify.
• Car trips: a tube and mount you can lift into a trunk in one or two trips. Add the DX 130AZ and the NexStar 6SE, which splits into tube, fork arm and tripod.
• Backyard or garage: room for an 8-inch Dobsonian of about 20 kg, carried in two pieces through a ground-floor door. The Classic 200P, the StarSense 8″ Dob and the NexStar 8SE belong here.

Stairs change the answer. A 20 kg Dobsonian up and down three flights every clear night gets used once a month. Our telescope storage guide covers rooms, covers and cases, and the tabletop telescope guide and the travel and portable telescope guide cover the lightest scopes in more depth.

What each aperture shows

Aperture is the diameter of the main lens or mirror, and it is the most important number on a telescope. It sets how much light the scope collects and the finest detail it can resolve. The table gives the light grasp of each aperture in this guide against a dark-adapted 7 mm pupil.

Aperture	Light vs eye	Shows well
80 mm	130x	Moon, Saturn’s rings
127 to 130 mm	330x to 340x	Jupiter’s belts, bright clusters
150 mm	460x	Planet detail, brighter galaxies
203 mm	840x	Galaxy shapes, Mars markings

Doubling the aperture quadruples the light, so the jump from 130 mm to 203 mm is larger than it sounds: about 2.4 times the light. Magnification matters less than buyers expect. The useful limit is about twice the aperture in millimetres, and the magnification calculator works it out for any scope and eyepiece. To see what each aperture shows on a given night and target before you buy, open the telescope simulator.

If one target matters most, the specialist guides go deeper: the best telescopes for viewing planets ranks scopes on planetary detail, and the best telescope for galaxies ranks them on light grasp for deep sky.

The best telescopes for adults in 2026

The ten picks run in ranked order and cover every rung of the hands-on ladder. Each card lists aperture, focal ratio, finding method, weight, tracking and price tier.

Best overall telescope for adults: Sky-Watcher Classic 200P Dobsonian

Best overall telescope for adults

Best for: Adults with a backyard who want the most to see for the money

Aperture

203 mm (Reflector)

Focal length

1,200 mm (f/5.9)

Mount

Dobsonian

Finding

Manual

Tracking

No (manual)

Weight

20.4 kg

Space and carry

Backyard

Shows best

Planets, Moon, Deep sky

Price tier

$600 to $999

Light grasp: 203 mm gathers about 840x the light of your naked eye, f/5.9. See it in the telescope simulator

Pros

• 203 mm for $629 to $725
• Planets and galaxies from one scope
• Ready as soon as it cools; nothing to charge

Cons

• 20.4 kg in two pieces, 4-foot tube
• You find every target yourself
• Needs cooldown and occasional collimation

2-inch focuser with a 1.25-inch adapter. Price $629 on sale, $725 list.

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The Classic 200P is the telescope experienced observers tell new adults to buy. Its 203 mm f/5.9 mirror shows Jupiter’s cloud belts, Saturn’s Cassini division, the spiral shape of bright galaxies and hundreds of star clusters, all from the same simple rocker base. It needs no power, no app and no alignment. The 2-inch focuser takes wide-field eyepieces when you want to upgrade.

It asks for space and a little effort. It weighs 20.4 kg in two pieces, the tube is about 4 feet long and the mirror needs 30 to 45 minutes to cool and an occasional collimation. You find targets yourself, by star chart or a planetarium app. For an adult with a backyard and a few clear nights to learn, nothing else in this guide shows as much for the money.

Best smart telescope for adults: ZWO Seestar S30 Pro

Best smart telescope for adults

Best for: Adults who want nebula and galaxy photos from a city or small home

Aperture

30 mm (Refractor)

Focal length

160 mm (f/5.3)

Mount

Alt-az

Finding

Smart (auto)

Tracking

Yes (needs power)

Weight

1.7 kg

Space and carry

Small apartment, Car trips, Backyard

Shows best

Moon, Deep sky, Photos

Price tier

$600 to $999

Camera view: a live-stacked image on your phone, no eyepiece.

Pros

• Set up and imaging in about 5 minutes
• 4.6-degree field fits the whole Andromeda Galaxy
• About 6 hours per charge, 128 GB storage

Cons

• No eyepiece: you watch a screen
• Jupiter is about 12 pixels wide
• Tripod costs extra unless you buy the $888 bundle

Sony IMX585 sensor, 160 mm focal length. $699 alone, $888 with the TH10 head and TC20 tripod.

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The Seestar S30 Pro is a 30 mm triplet refractor with a Sony IMX585 sensor, a motorised mount, 128 GB of storage and a battery that lasts about six hours. Tap a target in the app and it turns, focuses and starts stacking. The Orion Nebula shows its colour within minutes, and the 4.6° diagonal field takes in the whole Andromeda Galaxy.

It costs $699 alone or $888 with the TH10 tripod head and TC20 tripod, which add an equatorial mode for longer exposures. The limits are the ones every smart scope shares: no eyepiece, and Jupiter only 12 pixels wide. For adults who want deep-sky photos from a city or a small apartment, it is the one to buy.

Best portable smart telescope under $550: DWARFLAB Dwarf 3

Best portable smart telescope under $550

Best for: Adults who want a smart telescope for trips and a lower price

Aperture

35 mm (Refractor)

Focal length

150 mm (f/4.3)

Mount

Alt-az

Finding

Smart (auto)

Tracking

Yes (needs power)

Weight

1.3 kg

Space and carry

Small apartment, Car trips, Backyard

Shows best

Moon, Deep sky, Photos

Price tier

$300 to $599

Camera view: a live-stacked image on your phone, no eyepiece.

Pros

• 1.3 kg, the lightest pick here
• Wide camera for Milky Way and landscape shots
• IP54 body; solar filters included

Cons

• No tripod in the box
• 2.9-degree field is tight on big nebulae
• No eyepiece; planets stay tiny

Sony IMX678 sensor, 150 mm focal length, 128 GB. $499 to $549; any 1/4-inch camera tripod fits.

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The Dwarf 3 does the same job as the Seestar for $150 or more less. It pairs a 35 mm telephoto lens with a second wide-angle camera for Milky Way and landscape shots. Solar filters and a carry bag come in the box, so it photographs the Sun and eclipses too, and the body is IP54 rated against dust and splashes.

It ships without a tripod. Any camera tripod with a 1/4-inch screw works, or Dwarflab sells one for about $89. Its 2.9° field is narrower than the Seestar’s, so the largest nebulae need a mosaic. At 1.3 kg it is the lightest scope in this guide and the easiest to take on a trip.

Best app-guided first telescope for adults: Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ

Best app-guided first telescope for adults

Best for: Adult beginners who want an eyepiece scope that finds targets for them

Aperture

130 mm (Reflector)

Focal length

650 mm (f/5)

Mount

Alt-az

Finding

App-guided

Tracking

No (manual)

Weight

8.2 kg

Space and carry

Small apartment, Car trips, Backyard

Shows best

Planets, Moon, Deep sky

Price tier

$300 to $599

Light grasp: 130 mm gathers about 340x the light of your naked eye, f/5. See it in the telescope simulator

Pros

• Finds targets on the first night
• No batteries for the scope
• Wide field for clusters and nebulae

Cons

• Needs a Barlow or short eyepiece for planets
• 8.2 kg and bulky in a small car
• Mirror needs occasional collimation

25 mm (26x) and 10 mm (65x) eyepieces. Price $480 to $500.

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The DX 130AZ is the safest first eyepiece telescope for an adult who has never found anything in the night sky. Dock a phone, choose a target from the StarSense app and follow the arrows until a bullseye appears. The 130 mm f/5 mirror shows Jupiter’s belts and moons, Saturn’s rings, the Orion Nebula and the brighter galaxies, and its wide field makes star clusters easy to frame.

The 25 mm and 10 mm eyepieces give 26x and 65x, so add a Barlow lens or a 6 mm eyepiece for planets. At 8.2 kg it moves in one trip, though the tripod and tube make it bulky for a small car. The mirror needs collimating now and then.

Best app-guided big-aperture telescope: Celestron StarSense Explorer 8″ Dobsonian

Best app-guided big-aperture telescope

Best for: Adults who want 8 inches of aperture without learning to star-hop

Aperture

203 mm (Reflector)

Focal length

1,200 mm (f/5.9)

Mount

Dobsonian

Finding

App-guided

Tracking

No (manual)

Weight

19.7 kg

Space and carry

Backyard

Shows best

Planets, Moon, Deep sky

Price tier

$600 to $999

Light grasp: 203 mm gathers about 840x the light of your naked eye, f/5.9. See it in the telescope simulator

Pros

• 203 mm with app-guided finding
• No power or alignment
• Shows planets and deep sky in detail

Cons

• 19.7 kg; needs a ground-floor home
• Only one eyepiece in the box
• No tracking

25 mm eyepiece (48x). Price $850 to $880.

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This is an 8-inch f/5.9 Dobsonian with the StarSense phone dock built into the tube. You get the same 203 mm of aperture as the Classic 200P, plus app arrows to every target. For an adult who wants a big telescope but does not want to learn star-hopping first, the dock is worth the $125 to $250 extra.

It weighs 19.7 kg and comes with one 25 mm eyepiece (48x), so buy a 10 mm or a zoom eyepiece with it. Like any Dobsonian it has no tracking, and the tube needs a backyard or a ground-floor room.

Best GoTo telescope for serious adults: Celestron NexStar 6SE

Best GoTo telescope for serious adults

Best for: Adults who want GoTo and tracking in a scope that fits a car

Aperture

150 mm (Schmidt-Cassegrain)

Focal length

1,500 mm (f/10)

Mount

GoTo alt-az

Finding

GoTo motor

Tracking

Yes (needs power)

Weight

12.7 kg

Space and carry

Car trips, Backyard

Shows best

Planets, Moon, Deep sky

Price tier

$1,000 and up

Light grasp: 150 mm gathers about 460x the light of your naked eye, f/10. See it in the telescope simulator

Pros

• Finds and tracks targets for you
• Short tube, splits into three parts
• Planetary power with ordinary eyepieces

Cons

• $1,040 to $1,200 for 150 mm
• Needs 8 AA batteries or a 12V pack
• Only one eyepiece in the box

25 mm eyepiece (60x). Weight 12.7 kg with the tripod.

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The NexStar 6SE is a 150 mm f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain on a single-arm GoTo mount with a 40,000-object hand control. After a SkyAlign on three bright objects it slews to planets, double stars and galaxies and holds them centred. The folded light path packs 1,500 mm of focal length into a short tube, so it reaches planetary power with ordinary eyepieces.

It weighs 12.7 kg and breaks into tube, fork arm and tripod for the car. It ships with one 25 mm eyepiece (60x) and needs 8 AA batteries or a 12V pack. At $1,040 to $1,200 it costs more than an 8-inch Dobsonian with less aperture. You pay for tracking and portability.

Best premium GoTo telescope for adults: Celestron NexStar 8SE

Best premium GoTo telescope for adults

Best for: Experienced adults who want 8 inches with GoTo and tracking

Aperture

203 mm (Schmidt-Cassegrain)

Focal length

2,032 mm (f/10)

Mount

GoTo alt-az

Finding

GoTo motor

Tracking

Yes (needs power)

Weight

14.5 kg

Space and carry

Car trips, Backyard

Shows best

Planets, Moon, Deep sky

Price tier

$1,000 and up

Light grasp: 203 mm gathers about 840x the light of your naked eye, f/10. See it in the telescope simulator

Pros

• 203 mm in a short tube
• Most planetary detail of the GoTo picks
• Tracks targets at high power

Cons

• $1,699, the priciest pick
• Narrow field for large galaxies
• Needs batteries or a 12V pack

25 mm eyepiece (81x). Weight 14.5 kg with the tripod.

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The 8SE puts a 203 mm f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain on the same mount as the 6SE. It collects 1.8 times the light of the 6SE, and its 2,032 mm focal length gives 81x with the included 25 mm eyepiece. It shows the most planetary detail of any GoTo scope here, and globular clusters resolve into stars.

At $1,699 it is the most expensive pick and costs well over twice the Classic 200P for the same aperture. The kit weighs 14.5 kg, and the narrow f/10 field cannot frame the largest galaxies. Buy it if you want 8 inches with tracking in a tube that fits a car.

Best compact GoTo telescope for apartments: Celestron NexStar 127SLT

Best compact GoTo telescope for apartments

Best for: Apartment dwellers who want the Moon and planets with GoTo

Aperture

127 mm (Maksutov-Cassegrain)

Focal length

1,500 mm (f/11.8)

Mount

GoTo alt-az

Finding

GoTo motor

Tracking

Yes (needs power)

Weight

8.5 kg

Space and carry

Small apartment, Car trips, Backyard

Shows best

Planets, Moon

Price tier

$600 to $999

Light grasp: 127 mm gathers about 330x the light of your naked eye, f/11.8. See it in the telescope simulator

Pros

• 60x and 167x eyepieces included
• GoTo and tracking under $750
• Sealed tube, rarely needs collimation

Cons

• Narrow field for deep sky
• Needs 8 AA batteries or 12V
• Light tripod shakes at high power

25 mm and 9 mm eyepieces. Weight 8.5 kg in total. $750 list; often near $500 on sale.

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The 127SLT is a 127 mm f/11.8 Maksutov-Cassegrain whose tube weighs 3.95 kg and stores on a closet shelf. The GoTo mount finds and tracks, and the 25 mm and 9 mm eyepieces give 60x and 167x, real planetary power out of the box. The sealed tube rarely needs collimating.

The full kit weighs 8.5 kg. Its long focal ratio makes a narrow field, so it is weak on large deep-sky objects. List price is $750, but it often sells near $500. For an adult in an apartment who wants the Moon and planets with tracking, it is the best fit.

Best telescope for adults under $300: Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ

Best telescope for adults under $300

Best for: Adults testing the hobby on a budget

Aperture

80 mm (Refractor)

Focal length

900 mm (f/11.3)

Mount

Alt-az

Finding

App-guided

Tracking

No (manual)

Weight

4.2 kg

Space and carry

Small apartment, Car trips, Backyard

Shows best

Planets, Moon

Price tier

Under $300

Light grasp: 80 mm gathers about 130x the light of your naked eye, f/11.3. See it in the telescope simulator

Pros

• App-guided finding for $250
• 4.2 kg, sets up in minutes
• Clean, colour-free Moon views

Cons

• 80 mm keeps galaxies faint
• Outgrown within a year by keen observers
• No tracking

25 mm (36x) and 10 mm (90x) eyepieces.

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The LT 80AZ is the cheapest way to get app guidance on a real telescope. Its 80 mm f/11 refractor gives clean, colour-free views of the Moon, Jupiter’s moons and Saturn’s rings, and the StarSense app finds them. The 25 mm and 10 mm eyepieces give 36x and 90x. Lenses need no collimation.

At 4.2 kg it sets up in five minutes. The limit is aperture: galaxies are faint smudges, and an adult who catches the bug will want more within a year. Buy it to find out whether the hobby sticks for about $250.

Best tabletop telescope for small spaces: Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P

Best tabletop telescope for small spaces

Best for: Adults with little space who want 130 mm for under $300

Aperture

130 mm (Reflector)

Focal length

650 mm (f/5)

Mount

Tabletop

Finding

Manual

Tracking

No (manual)

Weight

6.3 kg

Space and carry

Small apartment, Car trips, Backyard

Shows best

Planets, Moon, Deep sky

Price tier

Under $300

Light grasp: 130 mm gathers about 340x the light of your naked eye, f/5. See it in the telescope simulator

Pros

• 130 mm for $269 to $305
• 6.3 kg, collapses for storage
• No power needed

Cons

• Needs a table or stool
• You find targets yourself
• No tracking

Weight 6.3 kg. Price $269 on sale, $305 list.

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The Heritage 130P is a 130 mm f/5 tabletop Dobsonian with a parabolic mirror and a collapsible tube. It weighs 6.3 kg and gives the same aperture as the DX 130AZ for about $200 less. It is the most aperture per dollar under $300.

It needs a sturdy table, a stool or a crate to sit on, and you find targets on your own. For an adult with a small flat and a balcony or a patio table, it is the pick.

Telescopes for adults compared

The table sets all ten side by side. Scroll sideways on a phone.

Accessories worth buying with your telescope

Five accessories cover the gaps these kits leave: a tripod for the Seestar, a battery for the NexStar mounts, a collimator for the Dobsonians and Newtonians, a zoom eyepiece and a red light that keeps your night vision.

Which telescope for adults should you buy?

Start with how hands-on you want to be, then check the budget and the storage space.

• Most adults with a backyard: the Classic 200P.
• Photos of nebulae and galaxies from a city: the Seestar S30 Pro, or the Dwarf 3 for less.
• A first eyepiece telescope with help finding targets: the StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ.
• Eight inches with app help: the StarSense Explorer 8″ Dobsonian.
• GoTo and tracking: the NexStar 6SE, or the NexStar 8SE for 203 mm.
• Planets from an apartment: the NexStar 127SLT.
• Under $300: the StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ or the Heritage 130P.

Still unsure? The Telescope Finder asks eight questions about who will use the scope and where, and explains each recommendation.

FAQ