How much would a high quality telescope cost?

Join an astronomy club, view through many scopes, borrow one, find a dark sky site (DON'T GO ALONE!!!)

Read reviews at www.CloudyNights.com

Shop at www.astromart.com classified or www.optcorp.com

Read Sky & Telescope or Astronomy magazines.

Get books at library or Amazon about modern amateur telescopes.

Celestron, Skywatcher, Orion scopes are much better than crude and fragile dept store and big box store scopes. Meade Instruments is in financial trouble.

That depends on where you are located. In the US they are relatively cheap since that is where a lot of high quality telescopes are made.

Elsewhere you have to pay exchange rates and freight charges (telescopes can be quite heavy) so the price can rise exponentially.

But as others have stated - seek advice in person first. Take a look at and through as many telescopes as you can in the field - go to star parties and join an astronomical society/club. It WILL save you a lot of money in the long run (I know - I'm on my 5th scope in 10 years)

I would recommend a reflector with a motor drive. The problem with a really powerful telescope is that the earth's motion has to be continually dealt with. A decent telescope like that is around $1500. That is how much I paid for mine around 5 years ago. With it I was able to see the Galilean satellites of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn.

Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner's telescopes:

http://www.gaherty.ca/tme/TME0702_Buying_a_Telesco...

http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html

http://observers.org/beginner/j.r.f.beginner.html

For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington's Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley).

You'll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these:

http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~categor...

http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product....

Buy from a store which specializes in telescopes and astronomy, either locally or online; don't buy from department stores, discount stores or eBay as mostly what they sell is junk. Find your local astronomy club and try out different telescopes at one of their star parties:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizat...

classic answer #24

If you want to learn about telescopes and how to use them, find a local branch of a amateur astronomy group and join them for an open observing night.

i can guarantee you will have fun!

(if the weather is good)

you will see and get to use many telescopes, probably in the $50 range to tens of thousands.

Telescopes do not come cheap. You may find a used 'scope at a pawn shop or in the want ads, but the prices vary with the size. So get a copy of "Astronomy" magazine. they always have plenty of telescope ads. The prices usually start around $1,000.00 or so, up to ???.

About 1200 IC.

FIRST! - dont expect to get results like Hubble got.

a good quality telescope will cost you about $3000.

best brand: http://www.meade.com/

i recommend you get a cheap one to start, for about $300, maybe a solar one too. they are fun and will give you more to look at.

between 100 to 10000

A few hundred to a few thousand.