10 Best Cheap Telescopes 2025 in the United States

The Gskyer Telescope 600x90mm AZ is an affordable option for amateur astronomers and casual stargazers. With a 90mm aperture and a 600mm focal length, it offers a clear and bright view of celestial objects, making it great for beginners. The fully coated optics enhance image quality while protecting your eyes, ensuring a good viewing experience. The included three eyepieces (24X, 60X, 120X) along with a 3x Barlow lens allow for versatile magnification options, which is a fantastic feature for exploring various objects in the night sky.

Portability is another strong point, as the adjustable aluminum tripod makes it easy to set up and use in different locations. Its height range of about 31.5 inches to 49 inches caters to users of various heights. Additionally, the telescope is designed to be user-friendly, requiring no tools for assembly and offering quick focusing, which is ideal for novices.

There are some drawbacks to consider. Weighing 18 pounds, it’s not the lightest telescope out there, which might hinder portability for some users. The manual focus can be a bit challenging for those who prefer more automatic mechanisms. Also, while it's suitable for viewing planets and the moon, its performance may not be adequate for deep-sky objects, limiting its use for more advanced astronomical pursuits.

The Sky Watcher Sky-Watcher Flextube 300 SynScan Dobsonian is a budget-friendly telescope with some impressive features, making it a great option for amateur astronomers. Its large 12-inch aperture provides bright and detailed views of celestial objects, which is a significant advantage for a telescope in this price range. The focal length and magnification capabilities allow for detailed observations, and the included wide-angle eyepieces enhance the viewing experience.

The innovative collapsible design adds to its portability, making it convenient to transport despite its weight of 99.2 pounds when fully assembled. Additionally, the telescope's built-in WiFi and the extensive 42,000 object database controlled by the SynScan hand controller make it user-friendly and engaging, even for beginners. However, the telescope's weight and size can be a drawback for those looking for something more lightweight and compact. Although it is designed to be portable, it may still be cumbersome for some users to move and set up. Moreover, the altazimuth mount might require some practice for inexperienced users to get accustomed to.

Despite these drawbacks, the Sky Watcher Flextube 300 offers robust features and excellent value for those seeking a powerful, yet affordable telescope.

The Celestron StarSense Explorer 8-inch Dobsonian is a solid choice for beginners wanting a budget-friendly telescope with easy navigation. Its large 8-inch (203mm) aperture gathers plenty of light, offering sharp and bright views of the Moon, planets, and some deep-sky objects like nebulae. The Dobsonian base, known for stability and simplicity, makes aiming and tracking objects straightforward.

What sets it apart is the StarSense app, which pairs with your smartphone to guide you through the night sky, removing the guesswork usually involved with finding objects. This makes it very beginner-friendly even if you have no prior astronomy experience. However, the telescope is quite heavy at over 43 pounds and somewhat bulky, so it may not be the best pick if portability and quick setup are your main priorities.

Manual focusing and tracking mean you’ll need some patience and practice, but that’s typical in this price range. If you want solid optical performance combined with smart, easy sky navigation in a telescope that won’t break the bank, this model is a good fit—especially if you plan to use it mostly from a fixed spot rather than traveling frequently.