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Telescopes
by Kar Wong ·Posted 12/14/2022
Want to choose the best telescope for you? You'll need to consider several important factors, including viewing application, telescope type, magnification power, and other features. Instead of scouring sites for scope specs, check out our roundup of the best telescopes for every type of user, from amateur observer to professional astrophotographer and everyone in between.
Best Telescope Overall: Celestron NexStar 6SE
Offering a
The Unistellar eVscope 2 isn’t a conventional telescope. The second-gen reflector belongs to the nascent-but-burgeoning category of “smart” telescopes, which forgo many of the design elements of traditional scopes and replace them with more sophisticated components, such as a built-in camera system and AI-backed computer software.
It is time to view the stars with a friend or loved one who has their eye on a brand new telescope to bring the heavens closer to home. But, when you log into the B&H Photo website, the sheer number of telescopes—not to mention their different configurations, dizzying specifications, and wildly different prices—leaves you with more questions than answers. In this guide, we will attempt to boil things down to a few
Now that we've discussed the advantages of using binoculars for stargazing, as well as an in-depth discussion about night sky targets, in Part 1, and then discussed characteristics of binoculars in Part 2, it is time to finish this three-part series by discussing what pair of binoculars you may want to outfit yourself with for soaking up the beauty of the heavens—and, it might be that a pair of binoculars you already own fits the bill!
Price and
In Part 1 of this three-part series, we discussed the advantages of using binoculars for astronomical viewing of the night sky and we talked about the different types of targets you can enjoy on clear, dark nights. At the conclusion of each section, I mentioned “binocular magnification considerations.” Here, we will get into that subject, as well as other characteristics of binoculars that make them better, or worse, for studying the stars. Then, in
The night sky is filled with wonders—so many that we humans build multi-billion-dollar telescopes to study them. The good news is that a lot of these wonders are available to all of us as we stargaze in our own backyards, and the easiest, fastest, and most convenient way to start exploring these is with a pair of binoculars. Even better, you don’t need to get your hands on an expensive pair of dedicated astronomical binoculars
The recent Transit of Mercury was a pretty big deal for a lot of reasons. I won’t go into too much detail about the actual event (we covered that pretty well already, on the B&H in Space page) but I’m talking about our coverage of the event. B&H partnered with Meade Instruments and the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York to do a morning of community
When photographing a planetary transit of the sun, be it Mercury or Venus, all of the same safety precautions of solar photography are required, without exception. This is because you are not photographing a planet in the night sky, you are photographing the sun as a planet passes between Earth and the sun.
Images of the transit of Mercury and Venus from NASA/JPL
Photographing the sun poses a very real danger to not only your camera gear, but to your eyes and eyesight. Let’s discuss safety precautions for photographing the sun with or without
When the inner planets, Mercury and Venus, pass between Earth and the Sun, it is known as a “planetary transit.” While not as visually spectacular as a solar eclipse, the transit of our inner solar system’s neighbors is a remarkable sight to viewers on Earth. Unfortunately, these events are not visible to the naked eye, so let’s discuss what gear is recommended for photographing and viewing the transits.
Astronomical images NASA/JPL
Before you invest in solar viewing optics, please know that these transit events are rare.
On November 11, 2019, the planet Mercury, when viewed from our home on Planet Earth, will pass between Earth and the sun—a planetary transit across the face of the sun.
Above: A composite photograph of the 2016 transit of Mercury © NASA/JPL.
Safety First
The sun is visible to the naked eye (obviously), but Mercury is so small and distant, you cannot view the event without a telescope, binoculars, or a telephoto camera lens. IMPORTANT: These devices need to be specially built for solar viewing or properly filtered. For information on how to
On the morning of Monday, November 11, 2019, the planet Mercury will transit the Sun for the first time since 2016. The transit of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence since, as seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible—those being the only two planets within the inner solar system and closer to the sun than our own. There are only about 13 transits of Mercury each century, and while it’s only been three years since the last transit, the next one isn’t for another 20!
Why is there such an
A few times over the past year, I have met people who, when they had a youngster express interest in astronomy, rushed out to B&H Photo to purchase the family a telescope. In a few of these anecdotes, the telescope saw limited initial use and then it was simply incorporated into the home’s décor—gathering dust in a corner. It became obvious to me that what the family could have benefited from more would have been a
The landing of the Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle, on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969, and the first steps of a human on another celestial body, represent one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of mankind. B&H Photo is helping to commemorate the milestone anniversary of NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins’s great journey to the moon and back with several special-edition telescopes from Celestron that ship with a commemorative Apollo 11 50th anniversary coin and
From personal experience, whenever I try to describe to someone who’s never seen what the rings of Saturn look like through a telescope or how a sunspot moves and changes shape as it transits the chromosphere over the course of weekend, there is definitely something lost in the telling. Wouldn’t it be great if even a novice astronomer with just some basic gear and knowledge could capture their own images of heavenly bodies to post on social media or (to go old-school) print them and hang on a wall?
Well, wish no more, dear reader! We live in
Whether you’re a youngster with an interest in astronomy or a young-at-heart stargazer, selecting a first telescope can be a bit daunting. You want a telescope that’s capable, easy to use, and designed for users just beginning to explore the night sky. Levenhuk, the American optics brand focused on user-friendly products, checks all these boxes with the Strike 90 PLUS Refractor Telescope Kit.
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