Most Popular Telescopes across 78645 Astro-Pictures! (Astrophotography)

I’ve conducted an in-depth analysis of 78,645 Astro-pictures taken by 8090 astrophotographers and the 76 telescopes they used. My main findings are that the Celestron Edge HD and RASA telescope series are among the most popular telescopes to engage in astrophotography, followed closely by the Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 ED and the Astro-Tech AT72ED apochromatic refractors. When taking image ratio into account, the GSO 8” Newtonian telescope and the Takahashi TOA 130mm and Astro-Tech 130mm apochromatic refractors also show strong popularity in the astrophotography community. All in all, it’s clear that these popular telescopes are the go-to tools for many dedicated astrophotographers.
Find my blog with a more in-depth explanation here:
astroforumspace.com/the-most-...
Check out the Top 50 most popular telescopes Table here:
astroforumspace.com/table-mos...
Direct Links to Top 10 most popular telescopes (overall score)*:
USA/WorldWide (OPT)
Celestron Edge HD 11": bit.ly/2YXBK9Q
Celestron Edge HD 9.25": bit.ly/2XyOzqU
Celestron Edge HD 8": bit.ly/3nsgkZC
Celestron Nexstar 8SE: bit.ly/3VQFthM
SkyWatcher Esprit 100ED: bit.ly/3h6LFDF
Celestron Edge HD 14": bit.ly/39fOLh0
Celestron RASA 11": bit.ly/3Bi6Edo
Celestron RASA 8": bit.ly/3rnhxGS
Astro-Tech 72ED II: bit.ly/3iNbcC2
Takahashi Epsilon 130D: bit.ly/3UGWMRh
EU/WorldWide (Astroshop)
Celestron Edge HD 11": bit.ly/3ux4p23
Celestron Edge HD 9.25": bit.ly/3VUXbR2
Celestron Edge HD 8": bit.ly/3iKL7DM
Celestron Nexstar 8SE: bit.ly/3iER1Gp
SkyWatcher Esprit 100ED: bit.ly/3UVyFyF
Celestron Edge HD 14": bit.ly/3Yhz6pQ
Celestron RASA 11": bit.ly/3BiUbGh
Celestron RASA 8": bit.ly/3Pe9UfB
Astro-Tech 72ED II: bit.ly/3iNbcC2
Takahashi Epsilon 130D: bit.ly/3UGWMRh
Check: www.astrobin.com/
Check: www.cloudynights.com/
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5) Use one of my *affiliate links below to buy your Astro gear at your preferred shop. I get a small percentage to keep my YT channel and website going, and you pay the same price.
- Astroshop (EU): bit.ly/3ijbZVZ
- OPT (USA): bit.ly/3ikp9Sz
- Amazon (worldwide): amzn.to/3gGLWaK
Any support you can give is highly appreciated, thanks!
You can also find me here:
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/ astroforum

[@AstroForumSpace]

Hi folks, find a more in depth analysis + top 50 popular telescope list here: astroforumspace.com/the-most-popular-telescopes-for-astrophotography-insights-from-78645-astropictures/

[@luboinchina3013]

Finally great and most comprehensive list of the most popular telescopes.👍👍👍

[@hottokatrazi]

Hi Wido, great idea for a top ten list.I think the list mainly shows that people who like to shoot with long focal lengths have only a small choice of telescopes. For small refractors or even F5 Newtons there are so many equivalent products that they will never appear in your list.

[@AstroForumSpace]

It's actually a top 50 database. See:astroforumspace.com/table-most-popular-telescopes-across-78645-astropictures/ cheers. I only mentioned the top 10 because people tend to fall asleep during my endless debates with myself 😉

[@aTillasSister]

This is a good point. Rather than individual brand of telescope, report on the class of scope for example 60mm refractor, 80mm refractor etc. The Redcat 51 is in a class of its own :-).

[@astrochumak]

What an amazing project! Really enjoyed it, thanks!

[@jster91]

This is awesome! Great study of telescope use. I wonder what a study of imaging cameras would reveal? :)

[@AstroForumSpace]

I have a feeling that it's going to be a zwo party, but perhaps the data will surpise us 😉

[@ziggyfrnds]

Hi Wido, Thanks for sharing this excellent analysis. It's one of those things that sound like such a simple idea once someone else thinks of it :D Well done!

[@k-d-n]

Amazing work!

[@astro4fun]

Great work...!!! I was very curious about this topic, even though I have been in this hobby for 40 years...👍👍👍👍

[@woody5109]

As always, another great video, no clue how you find the time to compile all this information and build the video, fantastic.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks so much Woody!

[@scottrk4930]

Hello Wido . Very nice Topic and discovery . I am surprised , a little , that there are no Meade Telescopes on the List . I am pleased to see my EdgeHD 800 did well . I hope that the Celestron Elves bless you with a RASA 14" for Christmas for all your work you've done here . Merry Christmas ! /SRK

[@AstroForumSpace]

Yep, that's true. I'll look onto that. I do think that the Meade advanced coma free telescopes are good alternatives for the Edge HD line. I've mentioned them before in this video about telescopes to image the planets here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/raKqlq2ar5J5eLs I just couldn't find many users. Perhaps I've looked in the wrong places and assumed most of us share pics on astrobin 😉. Merry Xmas Scott 🎄

[@AstroHAM]

Great research! Thank you verry much.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Glad you liked it!

[@okeania]

Great video, thanks. Waiting for most popular camera versions etc. :)

[@AstroForumSpace]

Tx, lol. I'll look into it 😉

[@davidjones7544]

This is great Wido and it doesn't surprise me. My fave scope now is an Astro-Tech 80mm edt and I really enjoyed my time with the celestron 8" edge. I miss the celestron but the crispness of images I get with the refractor helps. The 8 inch and the 80mm aren't too big nor are they too small and the 8" inch only needed collimation rarely. I owned a Newtonian years and years ago and would never recommend that as a first scope unless you have no problem collimating it on a regular basis. The cheaper main mirrors can also be very sensitive to temperature variations which aggravates the problem.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Dave, you're my astro soulmate 😆. After my adventures with the Edge hd this fall, I took my ts apo 80/480 mm out last week, and it was a treat to see these pinpoint stars and nebulae again. I'm thinking about getting another lightweight mount to pair it with this telescope, my avx is getting old. Perhaps the zwo am5 everyone is talking about. Clear skies!

[@davidjones7544]

@@AstroForumSpace Right on brother! Get both or keep them both because because I think that is where I will end up. They're both very enjoyable for different reasons.

[@daveincanada4794]

So glad to have found this research. Thanks for presenting Wido! Was time a factor in your sample of posted astro photos? It would be interesting to look at the timespan over which each model has been used to post images on the various forums. It may turn out that older, well-established models (like Celestron Edge HD) may be placing statistically higher in your rankings based simply because they have been astrophotographers' hands longer than other models with shorter histories like the RASA series. It would be immensely interesting to know how these rankings would shift over time, comparing what was popular among APers 10 years ago with what was most popular in 2022. And if you aren't exhausted from doing such research on telescopes, perhaps run the same statistics on cooled AP cameras!

[@AstroForumSpace]

You're absolutely right that there's some delay as newer scopes need time to gain interest and popularity. But...look at the RASA. Launched in 2019 and now already in the top 10 most used scopes. I've stored the entire top 50 on my website (links on description of the video). Would be interesting to look again 6 months from now to see if anything changed 😆.

[@astrophotonics9470]

Nice work , not surprise by your findings.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Thanks 👍

[@alanalain4884]

Thank you for the video and the work put in, One note for beginners though... Some scopes (nbr 4 and 5 in the video) are shown with just manual Eq. mounts. Not real for astrophoto. Barely any deep sky object photography can be done without some Polar aligned motorized mount, often associated with an added autoguider for long focal lengths. Also, despite what is shown (model 5 and 4), most people wanting to start deep sky objects astrophotography may want to use a small refractor and less of a reflector. Refractors are more money, especially when apochromatic, but closed systems, easier to handle, no collimation, etc. @7.25, one can actually see that one of the most popular small scopes for Astrophoto is the 250mm f/4.9 Redcat/Spacecat51, and not a Newtonian reflector... Motorized mounts go with gear weight too, and one can happily start with a compact Ioptron Skyguider Pro or Skywatcher Star adventurer setup at a reasonable price when used with a small refractor. One can do a lot with these small mounts, and also use them with DSLRs and lenses too (see Nico Carver on that). Best way to see imaging results of any astro gear is to search for the gear on Astrobin {scope or lens) and see what images people came up with a given gear, scope, lens, etc., and what equipment it was associated with to get the shot (mount, guider, integration time, Bortle scale, mono, one color, etc.). However, if one is into planetary and not DSOs, it will be a whole other imaging story, with max focal lengths, tiny sensors, etc. One more thing, looking at the overall popularity ranking, beginners will need to understand that those are quite expensive setups that are not the best first options for beginners for many reasons (one being you dont play with an Edge 11 as you would with a RedCat51 that you can easily take anywhere), and some owners of those 14" are so deep into the hobby (and their pockets) that they'll have their unit set on a rented space in some remote observatory and will do everything astro-imaging remotely from home. It sure makes it nice and easier maybe for huge integration times, but I wouldn't call those exactly "starters kits"...

[@AstroForumSpace]

Tx Allen. This is obviously not a video about getting started. I made a ton of those as well, you can find them elsewhere on my channel and website, here: astroforumspace.com/ take care!

[@alanalain4884]

@@AstroForumSpace Thank you for the insight. Best...

[@tommyozzy317]

Great video. My poor Meade showing no love. I suspect that although the ACF is a fine scope, there is no reducer on the market making imaging challenging to say the least.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Meade ACF's are great. It is a popular telescope list, not a "best" telescope list. Anyways, there are many telescopes to like depending on your personal interest and budget. I mentioned the ACF's extensively in my planetary scope review here, clear skies! kzbin.info/www/bejne/raKqlq2ar5J5eLs

[@jml7916]

I would be interested in further analysis of the data by class of scope. There are a bunch of very similar scopes outside of the Celestron SCT's that combined would paint a different picture (70-80mm f/5-f/6 for eg). Also it would be interesting to divide the data by planetary, galaxy, nebula. Each genre would have different preferences I think. This may also be skewed towards planetary simply because of integration time requirements.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Here's the sortable datatable of the project, enjoy 😉! astroforumspace.com/table-most-popular-telescopes-across-78645-astropictures/

[@DavesAstrophotography]

Great job Wido! I wonder how many of those EdgeHD 11" images were with the 0.7x reducer vs without.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Probably lots with the .7. It shows the scopes are versatile with the optional reducer and hyperstar. Cheers!

[@perry3928]

Thanks for all the research Wido. Interesting results. I wonder if processing skills played into posting or not posting pictures taken with said scopes. Well my 8se made top 10!

[@AstroForumSpace]

Hi Perry, thanks! Yes, processing skills could matter. I didn't look at the quality of the pictures as that's a highly subjective topic. I've uploaded some hideous pictures to astrobin when I just started 😃. Merry Xmas 🤶 🎄

[@ghillan]

Well done, this is an Interesting research. I'm quite surprised about the absense of the standard C8 ( the non EDGE one) . I very often read that even if the EDGE line IS better, its not really THAT better to justify its cost and people tend to suggest the standard SCT instead, wich its a lot cheaper. out of curiosity.. you picked only DSO images or also planetary ones?

[@AstroForumSpace]

Everything. Planetary and deepsky. Here's the top 50 table: astroforumspace.com/table-most-popular-telescopes-across-78645-astropictures/ The standard C8 is #20, and I think the Nexstar c8 is similar but with an Alt-Az mount, in the top 10 😉.

[@chriscooper1978]

Do you have any sense of whether a few individuals skew the image ratios? In other words, a couple of prolific poster could drive the average. I’d be interested in the median number of images posted per user. At any rate, this is a very interesting analysis!

[@AstroForumSpace]

Hi Chris, could be an issue indeed and that's why I took at least 30 users or more per telescope.

[@Stefan-Astro-Art]

nice video, i got William Optics GT81. Now i hope we get good wheater in the Netherlands😒. In the future i look for C8 EdgeHD or skywatcher Esprit 150 ED.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Have fun Stefan. Hope you'll get clear skies soon. December and January are the worst here in the Netherlands 🇳🇱

[@possisvideos]

You should also consider to analyze the number of likes to price ratio.😅

[@AstroForumSpace]

haha...yep. There's quite some "noise" when considering the number of likes, as the editing skills of the astrophotograhers also come into play. There isn't one best way to do this analysis, but at least it goes beyond the "I got this telescope and it seems to perform well" kind a thing :-).

[@phcalama]

Great and informative video. Only wish that approximate price had been included for each telescope.

[@AstroForumSpace]

astroforumspace.com/table-most-popular-telescopes-across-78645-astropictures/

[@VRzichtbaar]

I lke your approach but there are some flaws. e.g. the GSO 8RC is branded by numerous vendors and basically the same instrument. Also 80mm refractors exist in many variations (even when categorised by doublet etc.) Never the less a refreshing approach which I can appreciate.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Yep. I checked 75 scopes though, only 2 RC's made the top 50. The 8 inch RC from astro tech and the 10 inch rc from GSO. They're not very popular, despite being interesting astrographs. Here's the sortable table:astroforumspace.com/table-most-popular-telescopes-across-78645-astropictures/

[@aTillasSister]

What kind of targets were people imaging with these telescopes? Planetary and DSO have very different requirements.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Ofcourse. But I'm imaging both planets and dso's with an edge hd with a Barlow lens and a .7 reducer. That's probably why they are so popular despite being quite expensive.

[@ragrabau]

I think you left out some critical information. 1. the f ratio used for the image. 2. the object being photographed. I bet that I am not alone in having more that one scope for photography, as not all objects can be photographed by just one type of scope / camera configuration. Depending on the target to be photographed, will determine which scope and camera combination to use.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Yes, but I did that video already, lol. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpWrkGefptCtfs0

[@stefanschneider3681]

Thanks a lot, great effort you put into this! Very interesting! When I grow up (hmmm when will that be? I‘m over 50 already …), sorry, second try: When I win in a lottery (hmmm, I don‘t play lotto …), ok third try: When my wife let‘s me buy a new telescope, then I come back to this 😂! Because I love her too 🥰 … Greetings from very cloudy and fogy Switzerland.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Hehe, or check out occasion telescopes 😆

[@terrybrooks395]

I admire your work and integrity however the results aren't of much use as there are too many other variables to be able to suggest the best lens for someone, i.e. many set out looking for a complete astro set-up including a dedicated astro camera but others don't want to or cannot invest in a camera too so look for a scope that works well with their DSLR/Mirrorless camera, this would introduce two separate subsets of photographers, you could also introduce wide field, deep sky and plenetary preferences and now we have 6 sub sets of ideal scopes, if you happen to have gathered this data then you could create the results of these sub sets which would be far more real world useful. Thanks for a great amount of effort though

[@AstroForumSpace]

Hi Terry, here's the top 50 sortable table to sort on telescope type, price, planetary, deepsky, weight etc. I have lots of vids on my channel and website on dso, planetary imaging, beginner, advanced astrophotography. I wanted to stay away from that in this video and just look at what most folks actually use. astroforumspace.com/table-most-popular-telescopes-across-78645-astropictures/

[@layhervamp]

i think cost should have featured, i believe price will factor in scope choice and as such may skew your data and therefore your analysis

[@AstroForumSpace]

Well, here's the table including price range: astroforumspace.com/table-most-popular-telescopes-across-78645-astropictures/

[@timpatton3948]

I think what your looking at is people who have their own observatory. I would be interested to see the results of what telescopes are used by people who have to setup every night. I think the bigger scopes would fall off the list.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Here's the top 50, you can sort on weight, length, aperture, etc. astroforumspace.com/table-most-popular-telescopes-across-78645-astropictures/ smaller apo refractors are in the list but mostly fail to reach top 10 because of the modest image ratio. Clear skies.

[@RaduChelariu]

Really liked the approach, so decided to extend the research to a more specific target: Image Of The Day (on Astrobin). I went back a whole year and got some interesting results, particularly when comparing them with your own findings: Total no. of entries: 200 Number of unique telescopes: 67 Number of unique brands: 20 Top 5 brands and no. of entries: 1. Takahashi (56) 2. Planewave (30) 3. Skywatcher (22) 4. TS (19) 5. Celestron (16) Top 5 telescopes and no. of entries: 1. Takahashi FSQ-106ED (23) 2. Planewave CDK17 (14) 3. TEC APO140ED (9) 4. ASA 600 (7) 5. Five-way tie: Planewave CDK14 (6) ASA N10 (6) TS 8" ONTC (6) TS 10" ONTC (6) Planewave CDK24 (6) 200 entries across a year is not a particularly large sample, but it is large enough to clearly see that the Takahashi FSQ-106ED and the Planewave CDK17 produce images that are the most likely to be selected for IOTD. That being said, I doubt anyone will be rushing out to fork 8k on an FSQ-106ED or, worse, 23k on a CDK17. And, I have to be clear, there were 41 winners that did it with affordable Skywatcher and TS telescopes; just not the same one telescope. To give you an example, Skywatcher newtonians (150PDS, Quattro 200, 250P and Quattro 250) won 6 IOTDs, and you can buy all 4 of them for 15% the price of the Planewave CDK14, which also won IOTD 6 times. * I excluded IOTDs that are not DSOs (planetary, lucky imaging, ISS, solar) as well as those that used camera lenses instead of telescopes. I also excluded telescopes that are difficult to acquire (i.e. Astro-Physics), are not commercially available or are custom DIY solutions.

[@AstroForumSpace]

Thanks Radu, interesting lists! I think it shows that, in order to get an image of the day, you'll need a very expensive, and wide aperture telescope these days. It would be nice, in my opinion, to look at a budget range. Clear skies!

[@RaduChelariu]

@@AstroForumSpace Or, looking at the FSQ's construction, a 4" Petzval refractor at ~500mm FL 🤷‍♂️

[@davewilton6021]

One potential issue with your methodology is the time span. Your methodology will privilege older scopes that have been on the market for years over newer scopes, which might be very popular but haven't had the time to accumulate an online portfolio of images that use them. It might be better to limit the numbers to a particular short span of years, say 2020-2021. It would also be interesting to see how the popularity of certain scopes changes over time, which you could do if you included dates in the data.

[@IceyJones]

this takes only one platform into consideration. cloudynights is HEAVILY biased towards the american market, as most users come from there. i bet this list will variate a lot on other big platforms in other countries

[@AstroForumSpace]

Astrobin.com was the greatest source of information. But you're right, what extra sources would you suggest?