Telescopes for Christmas 2025: Part 1 -Beginner's Telescopes

There's lots to see in our wonderful southern skies

It's only a few weeks to go! Christmas 2025 is fast approaching and telescopes are always a popular gift idea for young (and young at heart) astronomers. 

Here's a few of our telescope gift ideas for under $500 that Santa can load onto his sleigh and leave under the tree ready to delight on Christmas morning.

What can I see?

The first thing that new astronomers who visit BINTEL ask is if they can see the Solar System planets. The Celestron StarSense and Saxon 6" Dobsonian telescopes mentioned here will see Saturn, Jupiter and Mars and even spot the more distant Uranus and Neptune. 

The Moon will be amazing, showing craters, mountains and open planes called Mare. You'll also gain an appreciation of the phases of the Moon as the Lunar "day" progress, revealing changing shadows that highlight different features.

What many folks don't realise is that our Moon and the Solar System are just the very start of your astronomy journey.  There's a lifetime of exploration to be found checking out deep-sky features such as nebulae, star clusters and more in the Milky Way. You'll even be able to see galaxies millions of light years away. BINTEL's monthly guides to the night sky covers some of what you can see and when, and are a great way to learn about what you can view each month.

Celestron StarSense Explorer telescopes

We've probably sold thousands of these popular telescopes over the last few years and based in the feedback from our customers, we never hesitate to recommend them. They're available in a variety of sizes or "apertures" to suit your budgets.

You might think magnification is the most important way to work out how powerful a telescope is, but this is not the case. Astronomers measure telescopes by their aperture. This is how wide their main mirror or lens is in mm or sometimes in old-school inches. As a telescope's main task is to collect the light that falls into it and concentrate it into your eye or camera, the larger it is, the more light from the Universe above us it scoops up. This means more detail and the ability to peer at even fainter, distant objects. 

Basically, the larger the aperture of a telescope, the more you'll see.

The Celestron StarSense Explorer LT70 AZ is a 70mm refactor telescope and an ideal low-cost introduction to astronomy. It's also quite lightweight, making it easy to move around and store. We have these telescopes in store to show you and can also send online orders to anywhere in Australia.

Moving up a little in size or aperture, the StarSense LT127 AZ offers larger optics that collects more than three times as much light as the smaller LT70 AZ telescope. 

Celestron StarSense Explorer LT127 AZ

Both of these Celestron telescopes include:

• Tripod
• Mount
• Two eyepieces for different magnifications

This is essentially everything you need to start observing on the night after Christmas. While there are other accessories and upgrades available, you don't need them to enjoy views through your new telescope. 

Possibly the handiest feature of all the telescopes in this range is the Celestron StarSense Explorer systems. This mounts your Apple or Android phone in a cradle attached to the telescope and using a special Celestron app included with the telescopes, shows you where to locate astro objects in the night sky. 

This cool gizmo shows you where to point your telescope to observe planets deep-sky objects and even take you on personalised guided tours.  This is included on all models in the StarSense Explorer range.  

Saxon 6" Dobsonian - $499

A Dobsonian or "Dob" telescope refers to the simple yet highly effective mount that's usually associated with Newtonian style reflectors. They've been popular with astronomers for decades mainly as Dobs are probably the most effective way to get the most telescope for your astro dollar. 

Saxon 6" Dobsonian Telescope

We'd rate this 6", along with the larger models in the Saxon Dob range, as ideal telescopes for serious beginners.  They all come with two eyepieces as standard,  and there's wide range of add on eyepieces to further improve your viewing as your experience grows. 

It's not uncommon for our customers to use their Dobs for years or even decades!

Perfect starter telescope for young astronomers - Celestron FirstScope - $99

This might be the tiniest telescope we sell but it's certainly not a toy. This little 76mm Celestron can easily be picked up in one hand and carried around. Simple to use, it's a perfect introduction to star gazing, offering memorable views of the Moon and discovering Milky Way star clouds, nebula and star clusters. 

What about taking photos?