Buying Telescopes

many of these telescopes have poor optics or mounts and the same amount of money could purchase a good quality starter scope from a reputable dealer or used.

"Try" Before You Buy

We strongly recommend BEFORE you by a telescope that you come out to some of our meetings and talk to our experienced members about your needs and that you come out to our public observing sessions to look through
different telescopes to see which ones work best for you.  If you are a member, you can also come out to our dark site observing sessions even if you don't have a telescope and view through other member's scopes to "try before you buy."

Telescope/Eyepiece Simulators

A simulator can help you decide what aperture of scope you want by showing you a simulation of what different objecs will look like through different size scopes.

Here are some simulators we have found:

1. Telescope Simulator
2. Eyepiece Simulator
3. M13 Through Various Scope Sizes

Buying New Telescopes

• Island Eyepiece & Telescope - Island Eyepiece is the only independent telescope dealer on Vancouver Island. They don't
  have a retail storefront, but you can order on their web site and they will ship it to you. They also sponsor many local astronomy activities around Vancouver Island, so we like to support them.

Sources For Used Telescopes

• Canada-wide Astronomy Buy & Sell - This is a web site for Canadians to list their used telescopes for sale. Used telescopes can be a very affordable way to start this hobby. Remember that buying used is riskier than buying new, especially if the scope is to be shipped.
  
• Craigslist - Craigslist is a good source for finding local scopes, but once again, it is buyer beware when dealing used.
• Used Nanaimo - Link to their telescope and binoculars section.
• Used Victoria - Link to their telescope and binoculars section.

Read other Nanaimo Astronomy Society member's blogs to find out their experiences with their scopes.

If you are interested in astrophotography, check out the astrophotography section of our site to see astrophotos taken by our members and to learn about the equipment they used.