1. Determine which astronomical telescope you need
Common astronomical telescopes are divided into three types: refracting, reflective, and catadioptric.

（1） Refraction type: advantages - good imaging effect; disadvantages - high price and chromatic aberration.
（2）Reflective: Advantages - low price, small size and light weight, large aperture; disadvantages - spherical aberration in imaging.

（3）Refraction type: There is a refraction correction mirror in front of the reflector, which has the advantages of refraction and reflection, and the price is moderate

If it is just a general astronomy enthusiast and the budget is not very large, the reflection type is recommended, among which the Newton reflection type is the cheapest.

determine the diameter of the telescope to buy

Aperture is the most important parameter of an astronomical telescope, and the size of the aperture directly determines the resolution of imaging. For the same type of telescope, the larger the aperture, the higher the price, depending on your budget.

Other accessories

(1) Tracking equipment: There are equatorial mounts and level meters. An equatorial mount is recommended for manual adjustment of observations. Manually adjusting the level to track the stars is a real pain. Automatically depends on personal preference.

(2) Tripod: preferably stainless steel, which is more stable when fine-tuning.

For beginners in astronomical observation, it is recommended to use a manual equatorial mount + a Newtonian reflector telescope with a diameter of 10-20cm. The price is not high (should be within $160 usd), and the observation effect is good.