Best Telescopes Under $500

Celestron has reinvented the manual telescope with StarSense Explorer-the first telescope that uses your smartphone to analyze the night sky and calculate its position in real time. StarSense Explorer is ideal for beginners thanks to the app's user-friendly interface and detailed tutorials. It's like having your own personal tour guide of the night sky. Description Dock, Launch, ExploreLeave complicated star charts, imprecise planetarium apps, and computerized mounts behind. With StarSense Explorer, locating objects has never been easier, faster, or more accurate. Within minutes of setting up the telescope, you'll be navigating the sky with confidence. Simply place your phone in...

In 1668, Sir Isaac Newton invented the first reflector telescope. By using mirrors instead of optical lenses, Newton was able to increase the aperture of his telescope while reducing the overall size of the tube, leading to brighter views of the night sky. The Heritage 130 pays homage to this design by honoring some of the great astronomers throughout history: Galileo, Messier, Kepler, Newton, among others. By using a lightweight 130mm parabolic primary mirror and a compact, manual azimuth mount, the Heritage 130 is the perfect blend of portability and aperture, just as Newton intended. Description Collecting 319% more light...

Be ready for the next big comet with Celestron’s special-edition Cometron FirstScope, a compact, lightweight telescope that’s perfect for beginners looking to experience the magic of the moon or a dazzling comet. This tabletop Dobsonian-style telescope includes a spherical mirror with a generous 76 mm of aperture. The Cometron FirstScope provides bright, sharp views of comets and other celestial objects, and renders the Moon’s mountains and craters in crisp detail. And thanks to its wide field of view, you’ll be able to observe the brightest part of the comet and its tail or favorite deep-sky objects like the Orion Nebula....

Celestron has reinvented the manual telescope with StarSense Explorer, the first telescope that uses your smartphone to analyze the night sky and calculate its position in real time. StarSense Explorer is ideal for beginners thanks to the app's user-friendly interface and detailed tutorials. Its like having your own personal tour guide of the night sky. Description Dock, Launch, Explore Leave complicated star charts, imprecise planetarium apps, and computerized mounts behind. With StarSense Explorer, locating objects has never been easier, faster, or more accurate. Within minutes of setting up the telescope, you be navigating the sky with confidence. Simply place your...

In 1668, Sir Isaac Newton invented the first reflector telescope. By using mirrors instead of optical lenses, Newton was able to increase the aperture of his telescope while reducing the overall size of the tube, leading to brighter views of the night sky. The Heritage 150 pays homage to this design by honouring some of the great astronomers throughout history: Galileo, Messier, Kepler, Newton, among others. By using a lightweight 150mm parabolic primary mirror and a compact, manual azimuth mount, the Heritage 150 is the perfect blend of portability and aperture, just as Newton intended. Description Collecting 363% more light...

The Explore Scientific FirstLight 102mm f/6.5 Achro Refractor Alt-Az Telescope combines power and simplicity to provide new users with a complete observational platform for viewing the moon and planets, and bright deep-sky objects. Description Outfitted with a large 4" aperture, it can gather enough light to easily reveal lunar details, pick out Martian icecaps and Saturnian rings, and resolve distant star clusters. Its sturdy rack-and-pinion focuser allows it to handle heavier or awkward loads such as DSLR imaging rigs or the included smartphone adapter, and a larger 40mm drawtube ensures full coverage of camera imaging sensors to avoid vignetting of...

 Discover our Solar System with the Celestron PowerSeeker 127EQ! You"ll be ready to observe in minutes thanks to the quick and easy no-tool setup. The 127EQ provides bright, clear images of the Moon, planets, star clusters, and more for great nighttime viewing. Description Manual German Equatorial telescope The PowerSeeker mount comes with two slow motion control knobs that allow you to make fine pointing adjustments to the telescope in both Right Ascension and Declination axes, also referred to as RA and DEC. Accessories Included Accessories include a 20mm and 10mm eyepiece, a finderscope, and a 3x Barlow lens. The two...

FirstScope pays tribute to the men and women who brought us one step closer to understanding the universe around us! In 1609, world-renowned Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei, introduced an elementary telescope to the growing astronomy community which sparked interest into the mysterious night sky for centuries to come. Four centuries later, Celestron offers the portable FirstScope Telescope. The FirstScope pays tribute to Galileo Galilei and many of history's most notable astronomers and scientists by displaying their names around the optical tube. We honour the contributions of these men and women, who brought us one step closer to understanding the universe...