The Celestron – PowerSeeker 127EQ impressed us by its incredible compactness with just 29.92” in length while most other counterparts here are around 32”-38” long. Such that modest design allows it to be easily placed anywhere around the house, especially in tight corners or narrow space.

As a rule of thumb, the maximum usable power is equal to 50-60 times the aperture of the telescope (in inches) under ideal conditions. Powers higher than this usually give you a dim, lower-contrast image. For example, the maximum power range on a 90mm telescope (3.6 in aperture) is 180x-216x.

50 times
As a rule of thumb, a telescope’s maximum useful magnification is 50 times its aperture in inches (or twice its aperture in millimeters).

The Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope can see out to a distance of several billions of light-years.

If you ask most visual astronomers how much power they use in their telescopes, you’ll find that they prefer low power (under 50x) most of the time, medium power (50x to 150x) some of the time, and high power (over 150x) relatively seldom. Why is this? The main reason is that many objects in the sky are not really that small.

There are many telescopes that are great for visual astronomy. If you’re a beginner just starting out on a limited budget under $250, check out our bestselling visual telescopes. If you have a little more budget to spend between $250-$500, you can get a larger aperture telescope including some full-size Dobsonians.

For large objects a low-power (long focal length) eyepiece may be all you want because any higher power will not allow you to see the whole object in the field of view. For smaller objects the general guideline is to use higher power only if it allows you to see more detail.