Whether this is your first adventure into the world of astronomy or you're comfortable behind a scope, Amazon has a range of telescopes on offer suitable for beginners to experienced skywatchers.
Shopping on Amazon is a great way to find bargains on top-quality stargazing gear with some of the best telescopes on the market, including excellent options under $500, being available. Black Friday is coming on Nov. 28 so watch out for discounts across plenty of optics on Amazon.
Telescopes on Amazon: Today's best deals June 2025
Buying advice
When purchasing one of the telescopes on Amazon, or any telescope for that matter, you need to consider your budget and what you want from your stargazing experience. While there are annual sales events like Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday, you can still bag a bargain through the year.
There are three main types of telescope you'll see reduced, and each has different advantages, so we've explained each one below - so you know what to look out for. You can also check out our best telescopes guide for more information.
Refractors
These telescopes are usually best for providing high-magnification views of targets like planets and the moon. They're also very easy to set up and maintain and, thanks to their lower price point, they tend to be a popular option for beginners.
The one catch is that they do tend to suffer from a visual problem called 'chromatic aberration', where bright objects in the sky appear to be surrounded by a halo. However, this shouldn't dampen the experience for any viewers.
Reflectors
With wider apertures, these types of telescopes are able to take in more light and therefore better suited for spotting fainter objects. So if you're looking to stargaze at galaxies, nebulas and other low-magnification targets, these are the ones to investigate.
Unfortunately, these types of telescopes can suffer from something called the 'coma' effect, where objects appear elongated instead of spherical/ circular. Again, though, this is a minor issue - and probably something you can get used to at this low price point.
Catadioptric
There are two main catadioptric designs: the Maksutov-Cassegrain and Schmidt-Cassegrain. Both types often come with a computerized GoTo system, which can work out your position and location - and align with night sky targets that you program into the device. They fix the coma and chromatic aberration problems mentioned above but they also tend to be more expensive. That can put them out of the range of some beginners.
Typically, you'll find that the Schmidt-Cassegrain designs have bigger apertures, and the Maksutov-Cassegrain sport smaller apertures, so the former is better for fainter deep sky targets and the latter will offer high magnification views.
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