>>2595552Both my telescopes are from Skywatcher and are really good (a newtonian reflector and a maksutov-cassegrain). I just tested a dobsonian from Orion and its very nice too. If you browse astronomy forums you will see the same brands again and again:
Skywatcher, Orion, Celestron, Meade, Vixen... these are well known brands that you can trust. My first advice is dont buy your scope in a department store. Buy it online in a telescope/optics shop, and choose a known brand listed above.
Then, there are several types of scopes. With lenses (refractors), with mirrors (reflectors), or both (cassegrains). Refractors are heavy and expensive; I dont recommend them for a first scope. Unless you're a richfag. My advice is to buy a reflector (newtonian). Because mirrors are cheap to make and you can have a really big diameter for a small price. Thats what I use for the pics I posted in this thread (200mm diameter). The only thing that suck with mirror telescopes is that you will need to collimate (=calibrate) them. When you move your scope around, the mirrors will slightly move out of alignment, and you will have to learn how to fix it. You wont have this problem with refractors.
The third category (cassegrain = combination of mirror and lenses) are usually very compact scopes (easy to carry when you travel) and with high magnification. They are mostly for planetary imaging (sun, moon, mars, saturn, jupiter). They have a low f/ratio and basically suck for deep sky imaging but are great for planets.
To summarize:
-if you want to shoot deep sky and you are poor like me, buy the biggest newtonian reflector you can afford
-if you want to shoot planets, or travel a lot and want a compact scope, buy a cassegrain.
-if you are a richfag and dont mind spending 10k$, buy a refractor.
Dont forget the equatorial mount if you plan to do astrophotography. And yes, mounts are often more expensive than your scope, but its the key to long exposures.
sorry for poor englisherino
