By Alexander Merz · Updated on · Details checked on 2 October 2026
Sterngucker.de is an independent guide to amateur astronomy and telescope buying advice, founded in Germany in 2019 and now online in seven languages. We help beginners and advanced observers choose the right telescope and get the most out of the night sky.
⭐ In short: We are amateur astronomers and we analyse what telescope owners around the world report: in forums, in YouTube review videos and in more than 1,400 personal telescope consultations. The result is honest advice that also names a telescope’s weaknesses.
What we do
We answer the question almost every beginner has: which telescope is right for me? You will find buying guides by budget and purpose, comparisons, calculators and free personal telescope advice.
We also explain the sky itself: planets, constellations, moon phases, eclipses and meteor showers. If you are just starting out, our guide to beginner telescopes is the best place to begin; if you are buying for a child, read our guide to telescopes for kids.
How our recommendations are made
A reviewer has one telescope and a few nights, hundreds of owners have hundreds of telescopes over years. That is why we do not rely on a single review but count what real owners report.
We read forums in three languages: forum.astronomie.de and Astrotreff in German, Cloudy Nights and Reddit in English, Webastro in French. On top of that come review videos and comments from German, English and French YouTube channels.
The third source is ours alone: our own telescope consultations. From more than 1,400 answered requests we know which questions beginners really have and why purchases go wrong. Our own hands-on use of an 8-inch Dobsonian and the eVscope 2 completes the picture.
“Top pick” means “top pick according to the community”: the telescope that does best across owner reports, review videos and our consultations. We only write “tested” for telescopes we use ourselves. All the details: How we review telescopes.
- Astronomical data is calculated, not copied. Full moon dates, distances, rising and setting times come from the JPL ephemeris DE421 and are checked against a second, independent calculation.
- We check object data against scientific databases, including SIMBAD. Where sources disagree, we say so on the page, for example on the age of the star cluster M52 (35 to 160 million years).
- Prices are updated automatically and come straight from the retailer.
- Mistakes are corrected and the date is updated. Every page shows its publication and review date at the top.
Sterngucker.de in numbers
| What | Status |
|---|---|
| Online since | 2019 |
| Personal telescope consultations | more than 1,400 answered requests |
| Guide pages | more than 350 in German, over 1,500 in seven languages in total |
| Languages | German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Polish |
| Experience database | more than 240 documented entries from forums, YouTube reviews and manufacturer data, growing all the time |
| Our own telescopes | 8-inch Dobsonian (Omegon Advanced 203), Unistellar eVscope 2 |
Who is behind Sterngucker.de
Alexander Merz
Alexander Merz writes the guides and the telescope consultations. He is an amateur astronomer, dentist, private investor and lover of numbers, and writes about telescopes, equipment and the sky over Central Europe.
His profession shapes how he looks at equipment: he wants to know what a telescope really delivers, not what the brochure promises.
He observes with an 8-inch Dobsonian (Omegon Advanced 203) and the Unistellar eVscope 2 smart telescope. Both appear in our videos on YouTube and TikTok. Telescopes he does not own himself he assesses through counted owner reports, and he says so on the page.
Florian Wagner
Florian Wagner takes care of technology, data and search engines. He built the calculators, the automatic price updates and the analyses our recommendations are based on.
The site is operated by FinEdu GmbH in Stuttgart, Germany, see legal notice.
How we make money
Sterngucker.de is funded by affiliate links, mainly to Astroshop and, in the USA, to High Point Scientific. If you buy through a link marked with an asterisk, we receive a commission; your price does not change.
Which telescope we recommend does not depend on the commission. We label banners and paid placements as advertising, and a telescope’s weaknesses stay on the page even when we earn from it.
Contact
You can reach us by email at info@sterngucker.de. For a telescope recommendation, our telescope advice is the quickest route. You will find our videos on YouTube and TikTok.