Thanks for the wonderful write up. I am currently using
beginners telescope celestron power seeker 70AZ for more than 5 years. I want to get a good next level telescope. Max i can go till 30k. Any telescope dealer in chennai? do we need to order online only?
I am based of chrompet so we need to consider the city light pollution.
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There are no telescope dealers in Chennai. There are two in Maharashtra. At the 30k level, I would suggest getting a dobsonian if you are only into visual astronomy.
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Where can i get a telescope in Chennai? . Or ,are there any trusted dealers in here ?
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There are no dealers here. You can check with Tejraj or CSky telescopes who are based out of Maharashtra. I believe they are the two largest dealers who have some physical presence in India. Other than that, you can also buy from Amazon or Flipkart.
Recently an amateur astronomer from Bangalore has also started selling scopes.
You can see it at www.uime.in.
Sir what model/series would you recommend for viewing deep space objects and viewing planets such as saturn clearly ?
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There is a celestron dealer in Chennai, kolathur, invitty traders
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The best you can go astromaster 130eq
@Thiyagarajan, it really depends on what you want to see.
If the answer is planets, you would have to buy a scope with a long focal ratio(f/8, f/9, f/10, for example). This makes it easy to magnify the planets so that you see it clearly. You also want to get something with enough aperture so that you get to see details on the planets. You will probably need a motorised mount so that the object stays in the field of view even at high magnifications.
If you want to do DSOs, you really need aperture. People usually use lesser magnification than needed for planets and hence you may not need a motorised mount to keep the object in the field of view. Dobsonians are very suitable for this as they give the most aperture for a given budget. You may find it difficult to do planetary observations with this as you will have to keep moving the scope to compensate for the earth’s rotation.
If you want to do astrophotography, a lot more factors come in. For planetary photography, you go for scopes with a long focal ratios and for DSOs you go for short focal ratios.
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I am not sure if you have used and compared the Astromaster with other scopes. I would strongly suggest not buying this scope.
The astromaster comes with a spherical mirror. This leads to something called spherical aberration because the light rays are not focussed to a single point. Please see this image.
Also, the scope comes with a horrible eyepiece out of the box. You will have to spend extra $ to get a new one. The mount is also super flimsy.
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So which one is best
@Astrobarath369, there is no single “best telescope”. It depends on a lot of factors:
- Your interests(planets or DSOs or solar observations)
- Your ability to carry around heavy gear(an 8 inch dob might be around 30kgs)
- Your budget
- You want to do visual or photography
It’s really hard to suggest a telescope without knowing what the answers to these questions are.
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DSOs
Rs.30000
Both (visual and photography)
If it’s only for visual, get a dobsonian. You can easily get a 6 inch dob for that price. If you save a few more, you can get an 8 inch also.
However, you cannot do any serious photography with a dob unless you get a tracking platform for it. Even then, you might be restricted to planets only.
The cheapest way to get into astrophotography would be to get a star tracker and use your DSLR with a zoom lens as an alternative to a telescope. Needless to say, you cannot do visual with this setup.
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Sir thank you for the response .I have a question, can i get telescopes for rental in chennai ? The reason is I want to get some hands on experience please suggest .
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I’m not aware of any telescope rentals here.
Sir can i get your number ?
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There is Orion Dealer in Madurai, Go Scientifics. He has a good Collection on Orion Scopes, Ships Nationwide. You can try him too.
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Sir can you give his details and his number ?I am waiting eagerly 
:
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Please check out his website, His Contact details are Mentioned in the Website itself. I checked the Orion Website, He is the Orion’s Official Dealer in India. https://goscientifics.com/.
Happy Stargazing.
First, as with all beginner telescopes, Gskyer Telescope is actually much harder to use than a more intermediate-level one. This is something well-known in the amateur astronomy group I’ve joined, and they never, EVER recommend buying a beginner telescope, ESPECIALLY for kids.
Because most kids like looking AT stuff more than looking FOR it. And with this telescope, far more time is spent hunting for objects than actually looking at them.
My kid doesn’t have the patience or attention span for that, but I rather enjoy the challenge, so I do it. This brings me to the next problem.
This is made for kids. As such, the stand is very short. This means that all the time you spend hunting for things, you’ll have to be hunched over, crouched down, or kneeling on the ground.
And if you live in a place with a lot of light pollution, you won’t be able to see much more than stars, the Moon, or the brightest planets. Even Mars is difficult to see through this telescope, and you can’t make out any detail whatsoever on the surface.
You can make out SOME faint detail on Jupiter, especially if you go away from light pollution on a clear, moonless night. And you can just make out Saturn’s rings.
Venus, on the other hand, is very easy to see. Especially now, near the end of April 2020, it is the brightest it’ll be all year, so we’ve been looking at it every night. It’s too bright, even at its dimmest, to make out any detail, but you can see what phase it’s in.
Galaxies, most nebulas, and many star clusters are beyond the ability of this telescope, but that being said, I was able to see a planetary nebula called The Ghost of Jupiter last night.
For perspective, I’ve had a few weeks of use and practice, and feel comfortable with the telescope, and have a number of apps, charts, and star maps to help me find things, and it STILL took over an hour for me to finally find it, put it close enough to the center of my field of view to use with max magnification, and put it in focus.
And even then, it looked like a hazy, bluish star. We couldn’t make out any detail or the distinctive eye shape that can be seen with even slightly larger scopes.
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