SUNSET: 
Choosing Your Astronomy Equipment
How to Choose a Telescope
The incredible variety of telescopes presents a real challenge for first-time buyers. Here's a no-nonsense primer to an astronomical rite of passage.
Telescopes: Guides & Recommendations
Hobby Killers: What Telescopes Not to Buy
Here’s how to avoid buying an expensive doorstop.
Telescopes: Guides & Recommendations
How to Choose Your First Telescope
Here's a quick guide to the essential features that you should look for when buying your first telescope.
Choosing Your Astronomy Equipment
What to Know Before Buying a Telescope
Looking through a telescope introduces you to a whole new world of unexpected wonders. But telescopes come in a huge range of sizes and shapes. Here's a detailed, printable guide to the essential features that every good scope needs to have.
SkyScanner 100 vs. 4.5-inch StarBlast
How does the little $100 scope stack up against its venerable bigger brother?
The Joy of Small Instruments
No photograph can compare with the experience of viewing Saturn directly — something that's possible with even the smallest telescopes.
Telescopes: Guides & Recommendations
Three Great, Small Reflectors
Orion Telescopes & Binoculars's XT4.5 and StarBlast 4.5 and Edmund Scientific's Astroscan set the standard of excellence for small, inexpensive, easy-to-use telescopes.
Travel Scopes
It's tough to reconcile all the different constraints placed on a telescope for the airplane-traveling stargazer.
Choosing Your Astronomy Equipment
Best Starter Telescopes
In the December 2005 issue of Sky & Telescope, Gary Seronik reviewed a collection of telescopes costing less than $200. It's quite likely that if we were to conduct the same survey today, we would still pick the same 5 as our top scopes.
Choosing Your Astronomy Equipment
The Amazing $20 Telescope
Sky & Telescope has reviewed innumerable telescopes, and only a handful of the ones that we've tried and liked cost less than $200. Now we're going to recommend a telescope that's selling for $20, and your response is going to be "you're kidding, right?" No, we're not!
Telescopes: Guides & Recommendations
Cheap Enough for a Cheap Scope?
What value would you put on a cheap scope like this?
Telescopes: Guides & Recommendations
Portaball Reborn
Mag 1 Instruments, maker of the Portaball Telescope, is alive and well under a new owner.
Telescopes: Guides & Recommendations
Top 10 Telescope Questions & Answers on How to Use a Telescope
Here are common questions about telescopes culled from an expert’s mailbag.
Telescopes: Guides & Recommendations
Take-Along Telescopes
Want a telescope to bring on your next vacation? Here are some things to consider when looking for a travel scope.
Choosing Your Astronomy Equipment
Optical Aberrations at the Telescope — And How to Avoid Them
Optical aberrations limit the performance of an eyepiece. Here are seven common problems, with solutions where applicable.
Telescopes: Guides & Recommendations
Common Telescope Magnification Myths
Answers to some of the most common misconceptions about telescope magnification.
