You don’t have to sacrifice quality when looking for telescopes under $500 as there are many high quality budget models on the market. It’s always worth bagging a bargain where you can during the holiday season so if you’re looking for a new telescope without breaking the bank, you’ve come to the right place.
This page is updated year-round and we’ve been on the look out to discover top telescopes under $500 for the holiday season, so when a new deal becomes available, we add it here. While it’s unlikely you’ll find one of the very best telescopes worth thousands, discounted to just hundreds, you will find some of the best telescope deals at this price point. By searching for telescopes under $500, you’ll probably find some of the best beginner telescopes too.
We’ve categorized the scopes in this guide so it’s easier for you to discover the right deal for you. You’ll find top telescopes under $500, but also telescopes under $300, $200 etc. As well as starter scopes, some of the best telescopes for kids also feature here and if you’re looking for a cost-effective stargazing experience, you can always check out the best binoculars and best binoculars deals on the market.
Where deals aren’t available we’ve included some of our favorite models and recommendations and displayed them with their lowest available price. It doesn’t matter if you’re scoping out a fun and easy stargazing experience or if you’re looking to inspire a budding scientist, there’s a wide range of quality telescopes under $500 out there and you can check out the very best below.
Best budget telescopes under $500
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Today’s best deals on budget telescopes under $500
Budget telescopes under $500
Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ deals
The wide 130mm aperture on this Newtonian reflector unit makes it a great option for viewing lots of different night sky targets, including galaxies, nebulae, planets and star clusters. It’s one of our favorite telescopes for beginners, as it works in conjunction with the StarSense app on your mobile phone. We gave it four out of five stars in our Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ review. Simply download the app and mount your phone onto the scope, and you’ll be able to quickly identify night sky targets and navigate the stars.
The StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ is an ideal choice for beginners for a number of reasons. It comes on an easy-to-assemble and use alt-azimuth mount, it also has a sturdy build and high quality optics too. It’s relatively lightweight so transporting it isn’t an issue and for this price point, you’ll be hard pressed to find much better.
Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ
With a slightly smaller aperture than the 130AZ, this telescope won’t offer images that are quite as bright and sharp and you might find it more difficult to get impressive images of faint deep sky objects. However, as this telescope is an achromatic reflector rather than a Newtonian reflector you won’t have to worry about collimating the mirrors. This can be a fiddly process and ruin your evening’s viewing if you get it wrong, which is why the 102AZ might be preferable for absolute beginners.
During our Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ review, we enjoyed the added advantage to it and that’s the StarSense app, which points out night sky targets to you so you know what you’re looking at. While the app makes navigation a lot easier and a lot more fun, this telescope itself is also lighter than the one above, making transporting it far less of an issue.
Telescopes under $300
Orion StarMax 90 Tabletop
There aren’t many (if any) telescopes out there that are easier to set up than this Orion StarMax. The tabletop design means (as the name suggests) that it simply sits upon a tabletop or flat surface and is ready to use. It’s perfect for those who want to get on with stargazing straightaway and not waste time with the set-up. It’s important to remember that this scope doesn’t use or need a tripod.
There’s a lot to like about this telescope, it comes ready to use out of the box and when you factor in a decent-sized aperture and good quality optics at this price, it’s good value. Because of the Maksutov-Cassegrain design, there’s no color-fringing and we were impressed with the views we achieved of the lunar surface and Saturn’s rings. If you’re someone without much stargazing experience, or you have an older kid in mind, this is a great option.
Celestron AstroMaster 102AZ
This no-frills refractor telescope has a decent-sized aperture and a lightweight, portable design. We did find when testing it that it suffers from color-fringing around bright targets like Jupiter and Saturn, but this is perhaps to be expected when you’re using a refractor, especially at this price point. It also offered stunning views of the atmospheric bands and the Cassini Division in Saturn’s rings, so we quickly forgave the telescope’s viewing faults.
If you don’t want the help of technology and you like to do things manually, this is a top choice for you. At 14lbs it’s easy to move and transport and it features an easy-to-use panning handle to track your night sky targets.
Orion StarBlast II 4.5 EQ
This telescope has an impressively solid build. It comes with an equatorial mount, which can be tricky to master at first – we recommend playing around in the daytime before you try out nighttime viewing. Apart from this, though, it’s quick and easy to set up. It also comes with an impressively long list of accessories: two eyepieces — a 10 mm and 25 mm, which offer magnifications of 18x and 45x — a 2x Barlow lens, Orion’s Star Target Planisphere and Telescope Observer’s Guide for planning your observations, a moon map, a red LED light to preserve your night vision and a red-dot finder.
A focal ratio of f/4 means this telescope offers a large field of view as opposed to a long focal length. We have actually tested this model in the past and achieved stunning views of the Pleiades star cluster (Messier 45) and sharp, clear sightings of stars with only the faintest amount of coma.
Sky-Watcher Heritage-130P FlexTube Parabolic Dobsonian Telescope
The Sky-Watcher Heritage 130P FlexTube Parabolic Dobsonian telescope is a tabletop model and great for astronomers to use at their own leisure. Because of it’s tabletop design and size, it’s great for carrying around wherever you’re on the move to and it’s easy to use and set up too, so you don’t need in-depth knowledge of how telescopes work to be able to use this model.
There’s no hiding from the fact that there are other, cheaper tabletop models out there, but this telescope does feature some specs that others don’t. For that reason, some of the specs on offer, make this a worth entry into this guide and a top telescope under $500.
For your money you’re getting a telescope that offers a sizable 130mm aperture, meaning plenty of light passes through the lens, allowing you to clearly see the night sky targets you’re looking at. You also get a 650mm focal length which is great for a wide-field of view. So if you’re looking for star clusters this is great and you can still view the moon and some planets in our solar system, just not in as much detail as a scope with a larger focal point. It also has a collapsible tube for easier storage and rubber feet for increased stability.
Celestron Inspire 100AZ
This refractor telescope comes with plenty of accessories, including a smartphone adapter that will allow you to take images of the night sky. However, given that the refractor boasts a focal ratio of f/6.5, you’re limited to short-exposure photography here. But it is a nice introduction to astrophotography, all the same. During our Celestron Inspire 100AZ review we were particularly impressed with the novel smartphone adapter that ships with the telescope.
This telescope is perfect for beginners, but adult beginners, not children. This is because younger astronomers may find locating and tracking targets a little more challenging without the aid of technology, which can spoil their experience. We tested this model and found that sometimes we experienced some false color but that could be resolved with carefully selected eyepieces.
Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ
This reflector telescope boasts a fair-sized aperture and good-quality optics, which is why we rank it as one of the best budget telescopes under $300. It works with the StarSense app, which you can download onto your phone to make navigating the night sky even easier. When reviewing the Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ we found that it took less than 20 minutes to set up, which is relatively quick for a telescope.
When we made use of the 10mm eyepiece, which comes with the telescope, we achieved pleasingly clear views of the moon, Venus and the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44). Moving between targets is easy — but you will have to do this manually, as no kind of computerized mount is provided. An excellent option for both beginners and intermediate stargazers who want a fuss-free bit of kit.
Telescopes under $200
Celestron PowerSeeker 127EQ
An excellent entry-level telescope, this reflector model boasts a powerful 127mm aperture and comes with an equatorial mount. As mentioned above, these mounts take a bit of getting used to, so we’d advise testing it out in the daytime before using it in the dark, which we did during our Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ review. That aperture should make it easier to spot deep-sky targets.
It’s worth noting that this telescope is designed to be portable, but you may need a car or prearranged transport to lug this model around. It weighs 22lbs so there are many lighter models in this guide for sure, but it’s still a solid choice for setting up in a remote, dark sky location.
Orion Observer 80ST
We were impressed with the views we could achieve with the refractor telescope. We were able to view Jupiter with its belts and moons, Saturn with its rings and, with the right eyepieces, even the tiny blue-turquoise disks of faraway Uranus and Neptune. At this price point, we were unsurprised to discover a degree of false color, but this didn’t ruin the viewing experience. We could even spot craters on the moon’s surface such as Copernicus and Tycho.
The main drawback with this telescope is that the accessories are of low quality. If you want to improve the false-color issues, you’ll need to buy separate eyepieces. And we’d also recommend a stronger tripod, as the one supplied isn’t particularly sturdy.
Celestron AstroMaster 70AZ
Another top pick for young observers, when we reviewed the Celestron AstroMaster 70AZ we found this refractor telescope has an easy-to-use alt-azimuth mount, which we found offered a smooth and pleasant viewing experience. There are quite a few plastic elements on this model, though, making it feel a little fragile; we’d recommend supervising younger kids around this slightly delicate telescope.
Observers will be treated to clear views of the moon, Venus and Jupiter through this telescope. With a bit of tweaking, we actually even managed to bring a hint of Jupiter’s cloud bands into clear view. The model comes with 10 mm and 20 mm eyepieces, an erect star diagonal as well as a battery-operated red dot finderscope.
Telescopes under $100
Celestron FirstScope 76
This scope is usually priced at just under $60 which makes it a perfect gift for really young ones, as it’s robust and comes ready to use out of the box. At most, this model will offer views of the lunar surface and slightly deeper views of the broad night sky. It’s tricky to collimate as well, as the primary mirror isn’t adjustable, and it’s difficult to achieve pin-sharp sights through the field of view since the focuser tube is quite loose. Something we really loved about this telescope is the fast focal ratio that makes for easy observations of wide-angle targets, which you can read more about in our Celestron Firstscope 76 review.
All that aside, this is something that will happily sit on a desktop or table and bring young viewers joy, as they achieve deeper views of the general night sky. If you’re after a little bit more bang for your buck, though, you might want to opt for a pair of the best binoculars for kids.
Orion SpaceProbe II 76
A reflector telescope that offers wide-field views but performs well with lunar and planetary observations, this is a good option for young stargazers too. It comes with everything a budding astronomer would need, including 10 mm and 25 mm Kellner eyepieces, a red dot finder and a moon map. That red dot finder is extra helpful, especially when star-hopping under skies with a touch of light pollution.
At this price point, you can’t really expect views to be pin sharp, and we found attaching the tripod to the mount a bit fiddly. But at just over 7lb, this is a really lightweight bit of kit that will brighten up any camping trip with its fair views of planets and lunar craters.
Deals you missed
The bad news is, deals don’t hang around forever, which is why you should act fast if you see something that’s right for you. It’s why we keep this page updated and if something were to go back on sale, we would move it back to where it belongs above. Below, you can take a look at what you’ve missed and maybe get an idea of what could be on sale in the future – you never know you might find a telescope under $500 that’s right for you that’ll come back on offer soon.
How we test budget telescopes for under $500
To ensure you’re getting an honest opinion and genuine recommendation on each of the best telescopes, we rigorously test each model. We make sure to review a number of different aspects from the quality of optics, to performance, to quality of build and much more.
We make sure either our expert staff or knowledgeable freelance contributors are the ones to test out each model as they have a deep understanding of their fields. This means that each review we post is based on hands-on experience rather than reading other reviews and assuming it’s quality. Each telescope and is judged based on its price point, class and destined use. For example, comparing a 10-inch Dobsonian to a 2.76-inch refractor wouldn’t be appropriate though each telescope might be the best pick in their own class.
We also look to see how easy telescopes are to use and set up, to see if computerized mounts are reliable and quiet and what accessories you get with your purchase too. Eyepieces and tripods can really add to your stargazing experience, but only if they’re of decent quality at least and we can also make suggestions if additional kit would give you the best stargazing experience possible.
With complete editorial independence, Space.com are here to ensure you get the best buying advice on telescopes, whether you should purchase an instrument or not, making our buying guides and reviews reliable and transparent.
