But there is also a more personal motivation for Murabana’s work — combatting the perception that astronomy is a Western science. Unfortunately, setting up your telescope perfectly is only half the battle. You’re still at the mercy of the Earth’s weather and atmospheric conditions, no matter where you go. It goes without saying that you won’t see much on a cloudy night, but there’s still another issue you’ll come across even on clear nights: atmospheric seeing. Seeing is the term we use to describe atmospheric turbulence – disturbances in the air that can make your view through the telescope appear blurry and wobbly. During our Celestron Advanced VX 8 EdgeHD review, we were pleased to find that the optics in the EdgeHD negate the blurred edges, creating a perfectly flat field right to the edge of the frame for pinpoint sharpness across the whole image. The Celestron Advanced VX 8 EdgeHD's optical performance is impressive, with crisp and clear views with no optical distortion or false color. 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? Celestron Inspire 100azAimed at beginners and those looking to upgrade, this 4-inch refractor is at its best with the moon and planets and comes with a lens cap that converts to a clever smartphone holder for easy astrophotography.★★★★

A finder scope is a low-power (low magnification) telescope that sits on your main telescope. Your main telescope will typically have a narrow field of view, meaning you'll see only a little portion of the sky when you look through it. Your finder scope, with a wider field of view, assists you in pointing your telescope to your desired subject, making it easy to hone in on your target with minimal searching and repositioning.It comes with EZ Finder II aiming device and has 100 mm primary mirror optics. The telescope doesn’t have plastic lenses. You get the Starry Night astronomy software with this telescope. The aperture of this telescope is 3.93 inches, and it has a focal length of 400 mm.

To guarantee you're getting honest, up-to-date recommendations on the best telescopes to buy here at Space.com we make sure to put every telescope through a rigorous review to fully test each instrument. Each telescope is reviewed based on numerous aspects, from its construction and design, to how well it functions as an optical instrument and its performance in the field.This telescope can be easily stored when not in use, as it doesn’t take a lot of space. The two 12.5 inches eyepieces present in this telescope provide 40-power and 20-power magnification. This product is suited for wide-angle and low-power viewing of the Milky Way. 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.

The Astro Fi 102 telescope uses a Maksutov-Cassegrain design with a large aperture and a long focal length. This combination provides excellent magnification, making it perfect for observing planets. Additionally, the telescope has a wide field of view, making it well-suited for viewing star clusters and nebulas without having to constantly reposition it when you want to move on to your next target.STARGAZER OPTICAL QUALITY: Manufactured from the highest quality materials to offer you excellent optics to deliver incredible clarity and luminosity with picture-sharp brilliant images. The perfect gift for children and adults starting on their astronomy journey across our amazing universe The motorised function, once you get used to it, is a fantastic addition and once which makes the whole journey even more rewarding

If you're looking for an affordable telescope to get started with astronomy, the Inspire 100AZ is a great option. It has a large aperture of 10 inches and has 48X magnification. It is very easy to set up and has point-and-view navigation. Unistellar eQuinox 2:An easy-to-use motorized smart telescope that can locate night sky objects with the press of a button, the eQuinox 2 can have you exploring the stars in minutes with no prior knowledge, although, its in-built camera isn't quite detailed enough.★★★★½ Are you looking for a telescope to get started with? When you want to get into stargazing, one of the most important – if not THE most important bit of kit is a telescope. Without a telescope you might just be gazing dreamily at the stars out of your bedroom window!

The refractor has a fairly straightforward design, with a main objective lens at one end and a star diagonal with a threaded eyepiece at the other. Being intuitive to use, the refractor is often a popular instrument for novice astronomers, given their low maintenance. Refractors are usually affixed to a simple alt-azimuth mount, that slews from side to side and up and down to locate a desired target. Being easy to use means these telescopes are also simple to manufacture (at least for novice models) and, therefore, cheaper to buy. To summarise; the best viewing can be found on a clear night that follows a string of clear days. Set up in a dark, rural area on grass surrounded by lots of shrubbery with as little tarmac as possible. What Can You See with Your Telescope? Night Sky 11 is a nifty stargazing app designed specifically for Apple devices. It features many of the basic functions you'd expect from a stargazing app, such as the ability to point your phone towards the sky to reveal constellations and galaxies, alongside some innovative Augmented Reality (AR) features and handy astrophotography features. Orion Skyline 6-inch Dobsonian Reflector Telescope:A solid choice for beginner and intermediate astronomers thanks to its high-quality optics and ease of use. ★★★★ Over the course of the next 18.5 hours, the mission, called Project Stargazer, climbed to a staggering 82,000 feet (25 kilometers) in altitude and drifted above the desert. Only a handful of crewed balloon flights had ever reached greater heights. For the two men on board, William White and Joseph Kittinger, this was supposed to be just the beginning of a bright future for balloon-borne astronomy.