The big telescope page Specifications of reflectors Specifications of refractors Specifications of catadioptrics Download specifications in Excel-format (rightclick & select Save)

A few things to consider when shopping for a scope...
I am very concerned about the weight of a telescope, since anything heavy is much less likely to be dragged out on a given night. Generally, a small telescope tends to be used more often than a large and heavy. Also, a telescope with a large mass will need longer time to cool down, and needs a larger and heavier (and more expensive) mount. My second telescope, a 10" Teleport, was chosen much because it is the lightest and most compact available in this aperture. Also, it has that Zambuto mirror that everybody rave about.

Below are plots that show the relationship between aperture and weight (including mounting), and aperture and price. Prices were found mostly at US commercial web pages, and may vary. I just used whatever I came across. A lot of the specifications were taken from the tables in Phil Harrington's excellent book Star Ware 2nd edition (with permission).

As you can see in Figure 2, there is an enormous range of prices for any given aperture. Newtonian telescopes generally cost far less at a given aperture than other types.

Figure 1. Telescope aperture (x-axis) and total weight (y-axis) for the different telescope types.

Figure 2. Telescope aperture (x-axis) and price in dollars (y-axis) for different telescope types. Notice that the y-axis has logarithmic scale.

If you download the Excel-files, you can identify the individual points in the figures. In Excel, I highly recommend you try the Autofilter function (Data - Filter - AutoFilter). You can play around and select e.g. a certain aperture and price range and compare specifications.

All this information does not tell much about the quality of a telescope. To find out more about a telescope, I suggest you look for reviews at the review sites listed in the Links sections, and do a search in the Sci.astro.amateur newsgroup and the Telescopes group at Yahoo. Also, get Phil Harringtons book Star Ware.

Synonymous telescope brands
A large number of telescopes are sold in various configurations under a lot of different names. As an example, Guan Sheng telescopes are sold as Orion, Antares Skywatcher, Equinox, Sky Mentor, and T&L Callisto(?). Synta telescopes are also sold as Orion, Celestron, Konus, Bresser and Vista. TS dobsons seem to be orion Opitcs tubes remounted dobsonian style. Then there is Omcon, which I don't know were fits in. Then there is Saxon and Andrews somewhere. Well, it's a big mess and I have given up keeping all these apart. Phil Harrington has managed to sort it out in his third edition of Star Ware.

Table legend
Aperture" - aperture of the lens or mirror in inches
F-ratio - focal ratio = focal length/aperture
Mountings: DOB - dobsonian, GEM - German equatorial, Alt-az - Alt-azimuth, SREM - split-ring equatorial mounting, Ball - ball-type...
Wt OTA - weight of the optical tube assembly, in pounds
Wt TOT - total weight of the telescope, including mounting, in pounds
Focuser - inner diameter of the focuser, in inches
CO % - central obstruction (by the secondary mirror), in % of the diameter of the aperture.

Disclaimer
The data in the tables have not been proof-read, so there are probably lots of errors. Many models have been discontinued, but are included in the tables. When no mounting is listed, it can mean that I don't know what kind of mounting is supplied, or (most likely) that a mounting is not included. Some telescopes may be found under several different names (mostly imported Asian scopes). I have not included low-quality telescopes (e.g. Tasco, Bausch&Lomb, Bushnell, plastic refractors from department stores). Values are in English format. Metric values have been converted. Some rounding off errors are present. 1 Kilogram = 2.204585537918871 Pounds (Avoir.). 1 inch=25.4 mm.