Your first telescope: what to buy and what to see

The most common beginner mistake is buying a telescope by its magnification. What matters is aperture, the diameter of the main lens or mirror. A larger aperture collects more light, so you see more detail and fainter objects.

The three main designs

• Refractor (lens): sealed, low-maintenance and quick to set up. Small refractors of 70–102 mm are great for the Moon and planets. Larger ones get expensive quickly.
• Reflector (mirror): more aperture for the money. The mirrors need occasional collimation, which means aligning them in a couple of minutes.
• Dobsonian: a reflector on a simple swivelling base. A 150–200 mm Dobsonian is the classic first scope, because it gives you the most light per euro and is easy to use.

The mount matters as much as the optics

A shaky mount makes any telescope frustrating. Avoid the wobbly tripods often sold with cheap "500× zoom" kits. Go-To computerised mounts find objects for you, which is helpful under light-polluted skies, but they cost more and need power.

Your first targets

1. The Moon: craters along the terminator line, the boundary between day and night, look stunning.
2. Jupiter: cloud belts and four moons that change position from night to night.
3. Saturn: the rings are visible even at 60×.
4. The Pleiades and the Orion Nebula: best at low power.
5. The Andromeda Galaxy: a faint glow two and a half million light years away.

Tips that make a big difference

• Let the telescope cool down outside for 20–30 minutes before observing.
• Use a red flashlight so your eyes stay adapted to the dark.
• Start with the low-power eyepiece, then zoom in.
• Download a free sky-map app to find your targets.

Budget guide: about €150–250 buys a good tabletop Dobsonian or a 90 mm refractor. €300–450 gets you a 150–200 mm Dobsonian, the setup many amateurs keep for years.