Your Guide to Better Stargazing

Make the right choice with free, expert-driven, objective advices and telescope reviews that you can trust.

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Telescope OTAs Only

Telescope Mounts Only

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Explore Our Equipment Review Sections

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Telescope
Reviews

Dive into our comprehensive analysis of leading brands and models to find the best telescope to explore the cosmos with clarity. We aim to ensure your night-sky adventures are backed by the best equipment at the best possible price.

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Telescope Reviews

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Optical Tube Assembly
Reviews

Thoroughly examine the heart of every telescope setup, the optical tube assembly (OTA), and get the best possible deal on a wide variety of visual and astrophotography optical tube assemblies that we’ve tested and reviewed.

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OTA Reviews

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Telescope Mounts
Reviews

Stability and precision are paramount in stargazing. Discover alt-azimuth and equatorial mounts that offer the price, features, precision, and stability that your telescope or astrophotography setup deserves.

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Mount Reviews

Telescope Accessories

Telescope Accessory
Reviews

Enhance your night sky observing experience with the right tools for your telescope. Delve into detailed critiques of eyepieces, Barlow lenses, filters, diagonals, and more, crafted to optimize your night-sky exploration.

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Accessory Reviews

TelescopicWatch Buyers’ Guides

Learn and Improve

Tips, tricks, and guides for your astronomy journey

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The Best US Telescope Retailers Ranked: Where to Buy Telescopes?

Purchase with confidence by checking out our guide to the most reliable and reputable telescope retailers in the US, ensuring quality, value, and expert service.

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Why Buy Dobsonians, and Why Do We Always Recommend It?

Unrivaled in value and functionality. Understand the unmatched allure of the Dobsonian design and why they remain our favorite recommendation for beginners.

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How to Best Observe the Planets with a Telescope: An Ultimate Guide

Harness our experts’ tips and techniques to magnify and appreciate the wonders of our Solar System in vivid detail, no matter your telescope or where you are.

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How to Collimate a Telescope? A Beginner’s Guide

Precisely aligned optics make all the difference between a sharp or fuzzy view. Embark on a simple step-by-step journey to perfecting your telescope’s collimation.

WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK

TelescopicWatch is here to help

Real Experts. Real Opinions.

Our team of astronomy experts takes care of the homework, simplifying even the most difficult astronomy questions and making complicated terminologies simple to comprehend. Our team of astronomers has a combined experience of more than 3 decades in astronomy.

Helpful Tools.

We provide product comparisons, unbiased and up-to-date reviews, and ranking charts to help you narrow down the hundreds of astronomy equipment options.

Tailored Insights.

We give you unbiased advice on astronomy products so you can pick the one that best suits your needs, as well as tips on how to get the most out of your instrument.

Reasons to Trust Us
  1. We do a lot of due diligence in selecting the top astronomy products in each category.
  2. At least one of the experts’ team members has personally used all the astronomy products that we review, and they do testing and evaluations without any bias and do independent reviews. Typically, we will only review equipment that we have personally used for at least one or two nights of observing or imaging in some form.
  3. We also test the optics of most telescopes we get our hands on, either with Foucault/Ronchi, dual-pass autocollimation, or the star test, and our Editor-in-Chief, Zane, is building an interferometer in the future to get quantitative data on optical quality.
  4. We rank and rate the products, provide an explanation for our ratings, and award the products according to their merit.

Our Team of Experts

Zane testing one of his cassegrain telescope

Zane Landers

Zane has been featured in the Sky & Telescope, TIME magazine, and National Geographic for his homemade telescopes.
ed anderson

Ed Anderson

Ed Anderson is a member of the ASLI and the Custer Institute and has been featured on Sky And Telescope, NewsDay e.t.c
Gregoria

Luna Gregoria

Luna is an observatory host in North Carolina and has used over a dozen telescopes, ranging from cheap tabletop telescopes to the 24” observatory telescope.

Why Does TelescopicWatch Exist?

Our Editor-in-Chief, Zane Landers, answers:

My first telescope was a relatively frustrating computerized 4” Maksutov-Cassegrain, which I got for Christmas as a kid. My parents were lulled into buying it by sponsored “reviews” and marketing that I sent to them, having fallen for it myself. While it wasn’t terrible, I had no idea what I was actually going to be able to do with it until I got to try out the telescope and was relatively disappointed by its lack of capabilities. This disappointment kept me from becoming more interested for a year or so until I got another telescope. While my situation wasn’t nearly as bad as receiving an outright “hobby killer”, I’d prefer nobody else has to go through the same experience when it can be avoided with honest and professional reviews and product recommendations.

My goal at TelescopicWatch is to provide accurate information on telescopes that’s free of embellishment or exaggeration, as well as informative content on the night sky and astronomy at large.

A lot of advertising for all sorts of products today is based on superlatives and attempts to take advantage of emotions. Telescopes, in particular, are often advertised with something other than actual capabilities, optical quality, etc. in mind, such as claims of outrageously high magnifications or leaning heavily into the computer technology bundled with the instrument. Likewise, a lot of sky guides are focused only on the “best” or showpiece objects that are well-known to amateurs or lack information on what it exactly is you are seeing at the eyepiece. I aim to solve this with my work.