Best telescopes for seeing planets
Our planetary neighborhood is a fascinating place, with each world exhibiting its own unique identity. Whether it’s the phases of Venus, great storms in the Jovian cloud tops, or the enchanting rings of Saturn, there’s so much variety to enjoy. Fortunately for astronomers, the planets do share some common attributes: they’re tiny in apparent size and relatively bright. This makes them ideal targets for telescopes that prioritize resolution and magnification, and even fairly small instruments can give us great views.
When shopping on a budget, there’s an argument to be made for choosing a smaller refracting telescope than a similarly priced but larger reflector, because the secondary mirrors and struts in Newtonian telescopes perturb the incoming light in a way that reduces image contrast. For many dedicated planetary observers, a large refractor is the dream but there are downsides. Refractors are bulky, heavy, and expensive, so compound telescopes such as Maksutov-Cassegrains and Schmidt-Cassegrains make for a good compromise.
When shopping for your ideal planet-hunter, consider eyepieces or Barlow lenses that will help you reach higher magnifications between 120-250x within the practical limit of the telescope. This will allow you to observe in the sweet spot on most nights when the seeing is average. Here are some of the best telescopes for seeing and capturing planets.
Best value for beginners
If you want to follow in the footsteps of Galileo and other early pioneers of modern astronomy, a traditional refractor is a great place to start. The Mercury-707 is a well-designed and fairly priced planet-spotter for those on a budget. With a simple, robust optical design, it requires little to no maintenance, and ships with accessories perfectly suited to maximize its performance. The included eyepieces can each be paired with the Barlow lens to provide four different magnifications, including 140x – the maximum practical power of the telescope. This is enough to see large features on Mars and Jupiter, the rings of Saturn and the beautiful colors of Uranus and Neptune.
Also included is a true optical finder with 6x magnification, making it a breeze to accurately center your chosen planet in the high-power field of view of the main telescope. Remarkably this finder by itself is twice as powerful as Galileo’s first telescope! The key drawback of the Mercury-707 is its tripod and mount. With somewhat flimsy legs and no slow-motion control for its azimuthal axis, it can be tricky to keep things in view as the Earth rotates, and a light gust will introduce vibrations that spoil the view. But in calm conditions and with a steady hand, you can certainly have a rewarding experience at a price that’s hard to argue with.
Best achromat for purists
Japanese manufacturer Takahashi is world-famous for its outstanding, best-in-class telescopes. They’re also known for their eye-watering prices, but in partnership with fellow manufacturer Hanamaki, they’ve recently introduced the Starbase 80 as an affordable introductory model. Its 80mm F/10 lens is made in Japan – a hallmark of optical quality – and comes paired with two orthoscopic eyepieces, which are perfectly suited to sharp, high-contrast views of the planets. These are a cut above the Plossl eyepieces typically included in telescope bundles, and won’t need to be upgraded any time soon. The optical tube assembly also comes adorned with the gorgeous creamy white and teal livery that Takahashi is known for.
Add to all of this the beautifully designed yet lightweight tripod and mount with dual-axis slow-motion handles, and you have a package that evokes the nostalgia of outstanding, classic Japanese achromats from brands like Vixen. The Starbase 80’s only drawback is its basic peephole finder, which can be upgraded at an extra cost to a 6×30 optical version. However, the sheer quality of the experience straight out of the box might just make you forget about that.
Best value 4” refractor
Celestron’s Omni XLT 102 is quite a unique offer, which includes a nice telescope and mount combination. The 4” F/10 achromat gives fine views, and its focal length makes it a good match for some of the best planetary eyepieces. Unfortunately, only one is supplied in the box, but with the addition of a 10mm and Barlow lens, you can achieve powers of 36x, 72x, 100x and 200x. At this top end, the Omni XLT 102 will show you some lovely details on our neighboring worlds.
Celestron also sells a 120mm and 150mm version of the same telescope, but notably, all three come with the same CG-4 equatorial mount. Whilst the larger models push the weight limit of the mount, the 102 is ideally suited to it. As such, it feels sturdy to use and dampens any vibrations quickly. Being an equatorial mount, it requires some practice to set up properly, but offers easy, one-handed tracking of the planets once properly set up. For those looking to go hands-free, Celestron offers a separate dual-axis auto-tracking upgrade kit that you can install at any time.
Best for portability
The Heritage-90 Virtuoso’s compact size belies its power. Using two mirrors and a meniscus lens, it folds a whopping 1.25m focal length into a tube just 28cm long allowing it to reach its maximum useful magnification with a comfortable 7mm eyepiece. The Maksutov-Cassegrain design is known for its ‘refractor-like’ performance, which provides better contrast than a Newtonian reflector of the same aperture. This is great for preserving the rich colors of planetary surfaces and atmospheres, which are easy to admire in the Heritage-90. Its simple red dot finder isn’t ideal, but the smooth slewing controls on the motorized Virtuoso mount make positioning objects easy.
The mount can also track the sky to counteract the rotation of the Earth, keeping your object of interest in the field of view, and it can be upgraded at any time via Sky-Watcher’s Synscan GoTo handset, granting it the ability to find more than 40,000 objects in the sky for you. Naturally, the planets are on that list! If you want to fast-track to the full GoTo system, and you’re interested in a more powerful telescope with a similarly compact design, you might want to check out the Heritage-90’s big brother, the Skymax-127 Virtuoso GTI.
Best for guided tours of the Solar System
Meade’s venerable ETX125 is a long-time favorite in the amateur astronomy community. Revised and improved over the years, it features a 1.9m long folded telescope on a precise computerized fork mount, with a decent tripod to keep everything steady. The computerized controller can find more…
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