Moon Telescopes
 

Can anyone recommend a good quality (not “professional grade”) telescope for viewing planets and the moon especially? Say, less than $500.
I’ve seen them advertised that will connect to a Smart Phone.
Thanks

I'm interested in this too.

Pretty hard to give a recommendation w/o some background. So...

Telescopes do essentially two things: they make small things big, and they make big things bright.

There are two primary types of telescopes: reflectors (also called "Newtonians), and refractors. Reflectors have a curved primary mirror in the back, which reflects light to the front via a diagonal mirror into the eyepiece. Refractors have the primary lens in front, which focuses the light back usually via a diagonal mirror and then into the eyepiece.

Telescopes are sized by the diameter of their primary mirror or lens. Hence, a 6" reflector is a newtonian with a 6" light-gathering mirror in the back. A 3" refractor has a 3" primary lens in front. The larger the mirror/primary lens, the more light your telescope will gather and all things being equal, the more you will see.

Reflectors give the best bang for the buck. You can easily pay 2-3 times more for a refractor as you would for a like-sized (in light gathering ability) reflector.

Your telescope will come with one or more eyepieces, designated by size (10 mm, 25 mm, etc.). With eyepieces the LOWER the number the HIGHER the magnification. The higher-numbered eyepieces (lowest power) usually give the best and clearest views.

Telescopes are also designated by their focal length ("F" number). The higher the focal length (usually around F8 and up) the better it will be for planets, the moon, double stars, etc. Small things big. The lower the focal length (F3.5, F4, F5) the better it will be for things like galaxies, star clusters, etc. Big things bright. F6 - F7 range are usually the one size fits all telescopes.

A good mount is at least as important as a good telescope. A poor mount magnifies vibrations such as cars going by, wind, a bump here and there, etc. Equatorial mounts are the best, also the most complicated and expensive. Altazimuth mounts are usually those forked things that come with cheap department-store telescopes--cheap, but bad. Dobsonian mounts are basically base-mounted swivels and are best for those who just want to look and are not interested in astrophotography.

Anyway, with all that said, my preference would be a 6" - 8" Dobsonian (Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount). They're basically point-and-look. Nothing fancy. I'd go with a tried-and-true name: Zhumell, Explore Scientific, Meade, Celestron, Orion, etc. The Skywatcher brand gets pretty poor reviews. The Chinese telescopes (and Amazon carries dozens of them) are recognizable by the fact that they either have no brand listed or has one of those invented all-cap ridiculous "names". My personal opinion is to avoid them like the plague.

Don't order anything labeled "OTA". It stands for optical tube assembly only and what you'll get is a tube, the primary mirror or lens, and probably the diagonal mirror. No mount, eyepieces, etc. which you would have to purchase separately. Dobsonians are nearly always sold as a package (scope, mirrors, mount, eyepieces, etc.) and amazon usually lists "what's in the box". You'll have to do some assembly but usually not difficult: YouTube has lots of assembly videos.

A couple of caveats: Reflectors need something called "collimation" from time to time, which is basically going out of alignment. Collimating a scope is not difficult: it will probably come with instructions as to how to do it, though it is intimidating the first time. Also, don't expect to see anything like what you see on TV or in books/magazines. Those are usually professional-grade pictures. What you will be able to see will depend on how well you know the night sky and also on the seeing conditions, and overall The Villages is pretty light-polluted. Going out in the country a ways, or finding a spot in TV well away from as much light as possible, will help.

Sorry for the long reply, but this is really bare-minimum stuff you'd need to know and there is a whole lot more that you'll learn on your own.

I have one that I think meets your requirements, I would be glad to demonstrate it to you so you have an idea of what this type of telescope can do. I have taken pictures of the moon with this setup. NOTE: it is not for sale, this was a gift from my wife. Your other source would be the astronomy club. Send a PM if you want to get together.

Get together. Thank you. I may just take you up on that.

Don't expect too much. The moon will be a fantastic site (best when not full so there are shadows). Venus will probably be just big enough you'll be able to see that it has phases. Mars not much. Jupiter maybe make out the big red storm, see dots that are the moons. Saturn able to see it has a ring.

Don’t forget to check out Craigslist and E Bay.

You may also want to consider a spotting scope instead of a telescope. I have one and it is great for viewing things on the ground, but you can also view the moon. You will quickly get bored looking at the moon, especially with a low priced telescope. I think I paid about $2,000 for my spotting scope.

We have a good amateur quality Orin Observer 70mm AZ telescope with a moon filter lens cover and tripod that I bought a few years ago. We used it periodically for about a year, especially during clear nights when the moon was full. Eventually it became one of many other toys that gathers dust in the attic above our garage. If anyone wants it I can bring it to our Villages home next time we make the long drive, most likely around new years (we fly down often for shorter trips). I will let the whole setup go for whatever it costs to play 18 holes at Palmer when the 2025 winter rates are published.

One of if the best 'long replies' I've seen on here.

I had a 6 inch dobsonian telescope that I bought from Orion telescopes. I could see Jupiter and Saturn, as well as Saturn's rings. I could see the Orion nebula and I could clearly see the craters on the moon.

Be sure whatever telescope you get you also purchase a moon filter. The moon can be very bright and can hurt your eyes if you're not careful.

Orion Telescopes & Binoculars: Official Site - Telescope.com

Here is the one I got:

Orion SkyQuest XT6 Classic Dobsonian Telescope Kit

Adding smart phone functionalitity is going to increase the price.

Lol, this is what happened to me too. It ended up being another thing in my garage that I constantly had to move around. It was really cool the first couple times though

I have a 6" Dobsonian Orion Telescope
 

I have a 6" Dobsonian telescope will sell for $200.00

I highly recommend TV Astronomy Club for telescope advice…

The Villages Astronomy Club

This is the same story for me too. I have a 6" Orion dopson telescope that was fun at first but you can only look at the planets and moon so many times. Each time is cool but a little less every time. Trying to find other objects is literally finding a needle in a haystack.

If I were to do it over again I would have spent more money, at least $4000, and bought a motorized go-to telescope. They are GPS equipped and will automatically go-to objects out of a database and stay fixed on the object accounting for the earth's rotation. Having astrophotography capability would be great as well.