So You Wanna Buy a Telescope: Advice for Beginners (2015)
The advice here seems dated, even for 2015. Here&#x27;s my advice:<p>1. Install an astronomy app on your mobile phone. Start with free ones, and see where it leads you. I recommend Skeye. This is good for going out by yourself and looking up things you see in the sky. For a PC, Stellarium is the best I have seen.<p>2. Get a camera capable of taking long exposure RAW photos, and get a tripod. There is so much hidden within the range of our FOV, that a telescope or binoculars are overkill. You&#x27;ll use the camera for other things, so that won&#x27;t be a special-nights-only investment. A basic DSLR should be fine, though I am curious about how well generic travel-zoom cameras do. If you have such a camera already, and played around with it, let me know.<p>Telescopes come <i>after</i> this stage.<p>&gt; What about Astrophotography?<p>&gt; Don&#x27;t.<p>Sorry, this is shitty advice. His friend blew thousands of dollars on the hobby. I didn&#x27;t.<p>&gt; and untold thousands of rejected images<p>In the days of DSLRs? That&#x27;s like saying I&#x27;m no good at computer games because of all the &quot;bullets&quot; that didn&#x27;t hit my intended target. Lame. To put it bluntly.<p>&gt;  8) Avoid any thoughts of astrophotography.<p>Fuck off.