How to Buy Amateur Telescopes for Kids and Beginners

If you are buying a telescope for a kid or a beginner, you need to consider some different factors from those who already know scopes. It is especially different in buying telescopes for kids, who you just want to teach how to appreciate the beauty of stargazing.

Buying for Kids

The main goal in buying a scope for children is for them to be more engrossed in stargazing. However, you need to be prepared in looking through several factors first and take note of the following tips:

• If you are buying for very young kids, find a simple scope. It will be used mainly for their education, but make sure that it will not remain as their toy, which is usually the case when parents just buy plastic telescopes that were poorly made. It would even be better if you go to a specialty store selling scopes designed for kids. You would not find a decent tool in a toy store.

• Talk to a sales associate and ask for suggestions about your kids' scope. A basic model would be a good first telescope for a young kid. This would allow him to learn about the basic functions of the tool. But if your child is more than 10 years old, find a scope with higher magnification. If your child grows older, then you can give him a more advanced model with more focus and magnification features.

• Reflector telescopes are the more popular choice of parents for kids. They are simpler as entry level telescopes. They also tend to be more affordable than refractors. However, they are larger and heavier to carry around.

• Buy only from reputable companies. Find a brand that has been known to make kids' telescopes for years. Make sure that they also have good customer service, such as toll-free phone support or live chat.

• Find a good mount to secure the scope. The best mount is one that can be secured to the table top. You cannot trust your kids' small and shaky hands because they would likely produce shaky images.

• Look for a portable telescope. It would be easy for kids to carry around.

Buying Telescope for Beginners

For beginners, you need to consider the following factors:

• Aperture. This determines how much light the scope will collect to offer clarity at the objects. The magnification feature has to match aperture.

• Magnification. If the formula says that the telescope is 100x5, the 100 means that the scope can be magnified 100 times. However, the more magnified an object is, the less light you are going to need.

• Focal length. This measures the length the light needs to travel within the scope to reflect and see the image. The higher its measurement, the higher you magnify the scope, the larger the object's image, and the smaller the field of view.

• Resolution. This determines just how detailed the image will be. But the higher the scope's resolution is, the sharper the image becomes. However, you also need larger aperture for better resolution.