Best telescopes for astrophotography for beginners

Start here: Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ. It's the friendliest real astrophotography starter — a 130mm reflector on a sturdy alt-az mount, and the StarSense app uses your phone to find and frame targets, so you spend the night shooting instead of hunting. Add a phone adapter and you're capturing the Moon, planets and bright clusters on night one.

Who the others suit:

• Celestron NexStar 130 SLT — same aperture, but a motorised GoTo mount that tracks objects for you: the pick if you want longer exposures without nudging the scope.
• Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 5" SCT — compact and long focal length, best for planets and the Moon, and easiest to carry to a dark site.
• Gskyer 90 Explore — a simple refractor for someone who mainly wants to look, with occasional phone shots.
• Sidara Nano 114 — a small, fast reflector for wide-field shots of the Milky Way if you already own a tracking mount.

Skip the cheap 70mm kits: their mounts wobble, which ruins long exposures.