Buying guide
Are cheap telescopes worth it?
Amazon's best-selling telescopes are budget brands — Gskyer, Hexeum and similar. The assumption is that they're the cheap-and-cheerful value option. We ran them against Celestron's entry range on live pricing, and the numbers don't support that.
The surprise: they aren't actually cheaper per mm
Sorted by $/mm of aperture — our standard value measure, lower is better. Budget brands in bold.
| Telescope | Aperture | Focal ratio | Price | $/mm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gskyer AZ70400 70mm Refractor | 70 mm | f/5.7 | $96 | $1.39 | Amazon ↗ |
| Hexeum AZ70500 70mm Refractor | 70 mm | f/7.1 | $110 | $1.57 | Amazon ↗ |
| Celestron FirstScope 76mm | 76 mm | f/3.95 | $59 | $0.79 | Amazon ↗ |
| Celestron PowerSeeker 127 EQ Telescope | 127 mm | f/7.9 | $169 | $1.34 | Amazon ↗ |
| Celestron Travel Scope 70 | 70 mm | f/5.7 | $99 | $1.43 | Amazon ↗ |
| Celestron PowerSeeker 114EQ | 114 mm | f/7.9 | $169 | $1.49 | Amazon ↗ |
| Celestron Travel Scope 80 | 80 mm | f/5.0 | $129 | $1.62 | Amazon ↗ |
| Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 114AZ Smartphone Telescope | 114 mm | f/8.8 | $229 | $2.02 | Amazon ↗ |
Several Celestron models come in below the budget brands on price per mm of aperture, while the Gskyer and Hexeum 70mm scopes sit mid-table. The premium you imagine you're avoiding largely isn't there — you're paying a similar amount per mm of glass either way.
And $/mm is the budget brands' best angle
Aperture is objective and it's the single biggest driver of what you'll see, which is why we rank on it. But two telescopes with identical aperture are not identical telescopes, and our data can't see the difference:
- The mount. This is where budget scopes are cut hardest. A wobbly alt-azimuth tripod that shakes for several seconds after every touch will ruin an otherwise fine 70mm objective. At high magnification an unstable mount is the difference between seeing Saturn's rings and seeing a vibrating smear.
- Optical quality. Aperture tells you how much light is collected, not how well it's focused. Short achromatic refractors show colour fringing on bright objects; how much depends on glass and figuring that no spec sheet lists.
- The eyepieces. Bundled accessories vary enormously. A "3x Barlow and 4mm eyepiece" advertising 300x on a 70mm scope is marketing — that aperture supports maybe 140x usefully.
- Support and warranty. Celestron and Sky-Watcher have US service and multi-year warranties. Budget brands vary, and some disappear.
So — worth it or not?
Usually not, on the evidence. The budget brands' case rests on being cheaper, and at the same aperture they mostly aren't. Celestron's entry models land at a similar or better price per mm and bring a warranty, US support and a mount that has been iterated on for years.
The exception: if you specifically want the bundled extras (phone adapter, remote, carry bag) and you're buying for a child who may lose interest, a budget kit is a defensible low-stakes purchase. Just buy it knowing you're paying for the accessories, not for optics.
The better move at this price is usually a small tabletop Dobsonian. The FirstScope above is the cheapest thing here per mm of aperture, and a table-top base is far steadier than any tripod at this budget — shake is what actually ruins the view.
We list budget brands with the same data as everything else rather than hiding them — you can see exactly where they land, and disagree with us if the numbers read differently to you.