The method
How I test
One question behind every score: how much astronomy do you get back for the money you hand over?
One number out of 100
Every product gets a single score, Stars for Your Buck. It weighs what the kit does against what it costs, so a cheap thing that overdelivers can sit above an expensive one.
The score is my judgement from using the kit, not a laboratory measurement. It reflects my priorities and my experience with each product.
The criteria on the board
The same frame on every review
Where the pictures come from
Under every night-sky frame on a review: the telescope, camera and integration it took. Product portraits at the top of the reviews are illustrations of the product.
The Telescope Man Standard
The rules every score followsEvery product is tested the same way, wherever it came from: bought, gifted or loaned.
Most of the finished frames on the reviews were captured at Bortle 6.8 (in my garden).
I point different telescopes at the same set of targets. You can compare the same objects side by side, but exposure times, filters and observing dates can differ. Check the details beside each frame when comparing the results.
Value for money, build quality, ease of use, feature set and compatibility. Not every question fits every category (filters, for example, are rated on value for money and build quality), so each category uses the ones that apply. Every rating is out of 100, and where a product has no criteria ratings shown yet, its overall score stands on its own.
The overall score, Stars for Your Buck, is not a straight average of the criteria. It is my judgement of the whole product against what it costs. The criteria ratings show where it won and lost marks.
Within each category, products are ranked by score, highest first. Two products on the same score are listed alphabetically. Nothing else goes into a rank, and nobody can pay to move one.
When a new product joins a category above an existing one, everything below it drops a place. Its arrival does not change anyone else's score. The rank on a review is the rank when the page was last built; the leaderboard always has today's.
A score only changes when I re-test, when an update genuinely changes the product, or when I correct a mistake. The review's updated date moves, and the review says what changed.
No company sees a score before it is published or has any say in it. How this site is funded
Method changes, dated
- The Standard written down on this page. No scores changed.
Prices and money
A UK shop first, a US shop second, then an international option. Every price comes from the shop's own page, in whole pounds or dollars; the shop has today's figure.
Disclosure
I review all kinds of gear. The majority I buy with my own money, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way: no company sees a score before it is published or has any influence on it.
Shop links marked Ad are affiliate links: I earn a commission when you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. They never change a score. How this site is funded