Astronomy is an expensive hobby and buying an expensive telescope is not an option everybody has. Especially beginners when they don’t know whether they will like this hobby or not. In such a case investing money in an expensive telescope does not make sense. So in this article, we will tell you about 4 telescopes that are under $200. If you are a beginner or on a tight budget then these telescopes are for you.
Meade Polaris 127 mm Newtonian Reflector
This is one of the telescopes from the Polaris series of Meade. It is a reflector telescope and comes with a German equatorial mount. The telescope has a 5-inch aperture. It is ideal for viewing celestial objects & if you also want to do terrestrial viewing then this telescope will be useful. This telescope has a focal length of 1000mm and a focal ratio of 7.9. It has a red dot finder technology which is helpful in finding the objects. The telescope comes with 26mm, 9mm & 6.3mm 1.25-inch eyepieces and a 2X Barlow lens. The 3 eyepieces provide low, medium & high power magnification for viewing a wide variety of celestial objects. With the inclusion of the Barlow lens, it is like having 6 eyepieces. The total weight of the telescope assembly is 26.6 lbs around 12 kg.
With this telescope, you can see the planets in our solar system. It has enough light-gathering capacity so you can see the objects out of our solar system and some bright deep space objects.
Overall this is a great telescope for the price & which comes with lots of accessories. The negatives of the telescope are it is slightly heavier compared to the size and as a beginner, it might be difficult for the beginner to use the equatorial mount but it can be overcome with practice.
Celestron AstroMaster 70AZ
This is a refractor telescope from Celestron. It is one of the telescopes from the Astromaster series of Celestron. The telescope comes with an easy-to-use Alt-azimuth mount. The telescope has an aperture of 70mm around 2.8-inches. It has a focal length of 900mm and a focal ratio of 13. The total length of the optical tube assembly is 36-inches. It comes with 20mm and 10mm 1.25-inch eyepieces. If you buy a Barlow lens with this telescope then it will be very useful to get the most out of this telescope. All the lenses have optical coatings so they will give you crisp images and remove chromatic aberrations.
With this telescope, you can see the details of the moon, and bright planets, and you will also be able to see some of Jupiter’s moon. As it has a very small aperture you will struggle a lot to see any deep space object.
Overall this is a great telescope for beginners to get started with astronomy without investing lots of money. The telescope gets the job done for the price you pay for.
Meade Infinity 80 mm Alt-azimuth Refractor
This is one of the telescopes from the infinity series of Meade. The infinity series telescopes are made for both land and celestial observation. It comes with an easy-to-use Alt-azimuth mount. The infinity 80 has an 80mm aperture of around 3.15-inches. It has a focal length of 400mm and a focal ratio of 5. This telescope also comes with 3 low, medium, and high-powered eyepieces & a 2X Barlow lens. The total weight of the telescope assembly is 19lbs around 8.6kg.
With this telescope, you can see the moon, clouds on Jupiter, and phases of Venus. If you get a really clear & dark sky then you can see many star clusters and nebulae but will look very faint through this telescope.
Overall the telescope is good for beginners but if you can stretch your budget a little then you should go with the 102mm version of the same telescope.
Zhumell Z100 Newtonian Reflector Telescope
This is a reflector telescope with a Dobsonian mount, so it is a Dobsonian telescope. The telescope has an aperture of 100mm and a focal length of 400mm. It has a focal ratio of 4. This telescope uses parabolic mirrors which help in giving sharper views and removes the spherical aberrations. The optical surfaces of this telescope are coated with Zhumell’s highly reflective coating. It offers 90% reflection capacity for bright views of celestial objects. The telescope comes with two eyepieces one is 17mm and the other is 10mm. It also has a red dot finder scope to easily find the object you are looking for. The total weight of the telescope is 6.2lbs around 2.8kg. It is a very light telescope, even children can find moving this telescope very easy. This makes this telescope a perfect option for a grab-and-go telescope.
With this telescope, you can see the moon, and quite decent views of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. You will also be able to see the phase of Venus. Outside our solar system, you will be able to see some bright deep space objects like Orion & Lagoon nebulae. Overall this is the best telescope for beginners in price, optics, and portability.
So these are some of the good telescopes you can buy for under $200. Which one you should buy depends on your priority. Whether you want more clear images or you want a portable easy to use grab and go telescope. And if you know you are really very serious about astronomy and stargazing then it is best to go with a slightly expensive middle ranged telescope with longer life & usability.
If you are looking for a telescope specifically for astrophotography then you need to check this article. You can also find the best suitable telescope for you with our telescope suggestion tool.
