Visual Astronomy

The full guide is being written. In the meantime, here is what we stock for people who want to look through the eyepiece rather than photograph.

Dobsonians

Aperture per dollar, and nothing else to buy. A Dobsonian is a big mirror on a simple mount that you push by hand.

• Starfield Optics Dobsonians - 8", 10", 12" and 16"
• Explore Scientific Dobsonians - tabletop through truss tube
• Sky-Watcher Classic Dobsonians
• Sky-Watcher Flex Tube - collapses for the car boot
• Sky-Watcher Flex Tube SynScan (GoTo) - it finds the object for you

A refractor for the driveway

Nothing to collimate, nothing to cool down, and it lives by the back door.

• Explore Scientific AR102 102mm f/6.5 doublet refractor

Binoculars

The most-used optic most astronomers own, and the one people underrate. Anything above 15x wants a mount.

• Celestron binoculars
• Giant astronomy binoculars
• Vixen binoculars
• Kowa BD II XD
• Binocular mounts and parallelograms

Not sure which?

Tell us your sky, your storage space and whether anyone else in the house will carry it, and we will tell you which aperture actually suits you - including when the cheaper one is the right answer. Ask us before you order.