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Message: <blockquote data-quote="physicscarp" data-source="post: 1089902" data-attributes="member: 7207">Ah, I was wondering when a Mars topic would show up here.  I don't know how many amatuer astronomers reside here, but I'll throw my two cents into the ring.  To answer your questions..1.  Any telescope will allow you to see the planets, since your able to see them with your unaided eye.  The better question is how much detail do you want to see.  I wouldn't expect to see the polar ice caps on Mars with a $500 scope, but you can resolve it into a rather large fuzzy red disk.  As for how well you can see the rings of Saturn or the Red Spot on Jupiter, well that depends on aperature size (see next answer).2.  Read this site.  And then read it again.<a href="http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/telescopes_page_000707.html" target="_blank">Space.com Buying a Telescope</a> The biggest thing to remember from the whole site though, is this - in general, the bigger the opening on the front of your telescope (the aperature), the better the view.  Magnification doesn't mean much if the telescope can't gather enough light.  Unfortunately, bigger aperature means more money.As for the scope you linked too, I'd suggest keep looking for a while.  While it is a Meade, and they tend to be pretty solid quality, it only has a 60 mm (2 inch) apearture.  The apearture size on my $35 dollar binoculars I purchased at Kmart is 50 mm.The best thing to do is find local astronomy clubs or amatuer astronomers.  They love to have the public come to their meetings (all geeks like to talk about their hobbies, including ENWorld posters! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> ) and they will most likely have scopes set up for you to look through.  If you can't find any clubs in your area, check out a local university's astronomy/physics department.  Hope this helps and you get a chance to do some viewing, because there's nothing like it.Carp</blockquote>

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