Best telescopes for beginners

Start here: Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ. It's the easiest beginner scope to actually find things with — you dock your phone and the app points you to objects in the sky — and its 130 mm mirror gathers enough light for the Moon, planets and brighter nebulae and clusters. A genuinely capable first telescope you won't outgrow in a season.

Who the others suit:

• Gskyer 90 Explore — a simple, well-liked refractor if you'd rather skip apps and electronics and just point and look.
• Celestron NexStar 130 SLT — same aperture, but a motorized goto mount that slews to targets for you; pick it if you want hands-off tracking.
• Celestron PowerSeeker 127EQ — a budget reflector for someone willing to learn collimation and an equatorial mount.
• Sidara Nano 114 — a compact reflector for a small space or a tight budget.
• Celestron FirstScope — a tabletop scope for a child or a casual first look at the Moon.
• Gskyer 70 Explore / SKY VIEW 70 — the cheapest way to try astronomy; fine for the Moon, limited elsewhere.
• Celestron NexStar 6SE — the step up if you're ready to spend more for a bigger, more portable scope with full goto.
• ZWO Seestar S50 — a smart scope that images for you; great if you want photos rather than eyepiece views.

Skip the tiny 40x department-store refractors: the mount shakes and the optics disappoint.