Konus Konustart 900 2.4 inch equatorial refractor

$Konus Konustart-900 2.4 inch equatorial refractor$
The Konustart 900 2.4" equatorial refractor: an excellent bargain for hobbyists
This excellent telescope, the Konustart 900, gives surprisingly good value. It is certainly a budget telescope, weighing in at little more than a hundred dollars. However, you get a little more than what you pay for in this case, as the Konustart 900 comes with features most telescopes in that price range can't even dream of. To begin with, there is a battery operated motor which allows it to track items across the night sky, allowing you to stargaze to your heart's content without having to constantly readjust your telescope. To use the motor properly, make sure you've aligned the telescope with the North celestial pole, a task that is easy because the Konustart 900 also comes with a finderscope for easy initial alignment.

The optics are great: you get good contrast and a high amount of light in the lens due to the special coatings that are on it. In addition, there's a dew shield on the end of the lens which will slow down the speed at which dew forms on your telescope, which means you'll spend less time wiping it off to get a clear view. The Konustart 900 also has a focusing mechanism that stops blurriness, so you don't have to worry about that either.

Since this telescope is made primarily to track objects as they travel across the sky, it's not a good buy if you need something with a wide field of view. However, if you are looking to get a close view of one specific celestial body, the Konustart 900 is an excellent choice for the budding astronomer. There's even a lens cover so you can take a really good look at the Moon, which is important because the Moon's surface is so bright it can sometimes be hard to make out details. Konus includes CDs and software which can help learn constellations and other familiar sky locations, which make this an even better buy for beginners than it otherwise would be.

Even if you're not a rank beginner, though, this telescope makes an excellent and cheap backup for more powerful equatorial refractors.