If you are still left feeling wanting for more, we have provided you with a buying guide. It has all the features you should look for when buying the perfect telescope.

The Maksutov-Cassegrain, also affectionately known as the 'Mak', corrects the optical problem that is experienced by reflectors — an aberration effect called 'coma,' which can make objects look distorted and appear like they have a tail. This effect is reduced or banished with the combined efforts of a spherical mirror and a meniscus lens, the latter of which is 'weakly negative'. The Maksutov is also adept at correcting for chromatic aberration, or color fringing, a distortion that creates an unwanted purple or blue edging around bright night-sky objects.It's best to have at least three good quality eyepieces that deliver low, medium and high magnifications — say around 50x, 100x and 200x. Taking as an example a 100 mm f/10 telescope, those eyepieces would be of 20 mm, 10 mm and 5 mm focal length. Let's assume that these particular eyepieces are of the commonly used Plossl variety. A field of view around one degree across (an area of 0.8 square degrees) is given by the 20 mm eyepiece — ideal for sweeping the deep skies and finding objects. The 10 mm eyepiece will just take in the half-degree diameter moon and have a field covering just one-quarter that of the 20 mm eyepiece. With its high magnification, the 5 mm eyepiece has a field of view covering just one-sixteenth that of the 20 mm eyepiece and can only be used when seeing conditions allow. How we test the best telescopes Planning your stargazing adventures is easy with the Star Walk 2 app. It has a 'Visible Tonight' tab where you can see which popular planets and constellations are due to make an appearance in your location. You can also fast forward in time to see how constellations or planets will progress across the night sky, which is handy for setting up your telescope in advance. During our Celestron Inspire 100AZ review, we found a small amount of false color (purple color fringing), and a slight blurring in the field of view was noticeable. The latter is easily resolved with a careful selection of eyepieces, so we recommend investing in one of the best eyepieces to make the most of the Inspire 100AZ's optical system. The slight amount of false color shouldn't dampen your experience unless you are particularly fussy about color accuracy being spot on. Celestron NexStar 6SEWit the Celestron NexStar 6SE's flawless optical coating, its ease of use and high-quality build, you have an instrument that is built to provide stunning views of the night sky for many years to come.★★★★½ White’s role on the project was to help develop scientific instruments that could be attached to the outside of the balloon gondola to measure radiation exposure — and the larger team’s efforts were successful. The data they gathered showed that astronauts would be subjected to high-energy particles from solar flares, which could harm their bodies. In fact, a version of the suits worn by the Strato-Lab pilots would ultimately be chosen for NASA’s Mercury astronauts.

White was a veteran of one of these earlier efforts. He had served in the Air Force during World War II before going on to study astronomy at The Ohio State University. Soon afterward, he found himself working as a naval researcher on Project Strato-lab, which was being used to pioneer new experiments in the upper atmosphere and test the technology needed to keep humans alive at those altitudes. The Strato-Lab team was laying the groundwork for humanity’s move to orbit. Once you've set up and aligned the telescope, you can use the handheld controller to aim it at various celestial objects in the extensive database, such as planets, galaxies, double stars, star clusters and nebulas. For beginners (or those who can't decide what to observe first!), there's a 'sky tour' option that automatically guides the telescope to a range of different fascinating cosmic objects.

Susan Murabana’s life-changing moment happened at 22 years old, when she looked through a telescope for the very first time. Suddenly, Saturn and its yellow-gold rings were more than just an illustration in a textbook; they were real and the experience was powerful. Aligning the Skymax 127 is a simple process, but beginners may need some practice to get it just right. We recommend thoroughly reading the manual to get familiar with the telescope before you take it out in the dark and realize you don't know what to do!

When you tap on each star, the app will reveal information about it, including things like characteristics, distance, brightness and its celestial co-ordinates to help you line up your telescope or camera if you have one. With paid upgrades, you can also access meteor showers, dwarf planets and additional planetary moons, comets and satellites.Magnification is one of the most commonly misunderstood features of a telescope. It does, as you might expect, make objects appear bigger in the sky. A 50x magnification telescope will make the 1/2° disc of the moon appear 25° in size. However, raw magnification power alone doesn’t result in a clear image. Without quality lenses, or the right aperture or focal length (we’ll explain these shortly), excessive magnification results in distant objects looking muddy and grainy. Magnification is great if you know how to use it. It can examine closer objects, such as the moon or a cloud formation, in finer detail and, if you have a telescope with a long focal length, it can bring distant galaxies and star clusters into pin-sharp clarity. Telescope Eyepieces – Which Size is Right?