Black Friday is a shopping holiday celebrated annually on the fourth Friday of November, the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year it falls on November 29 2024. It is traditionally the start of the holiday shopping season, and many retailers offer significant discounts on a wide range of their stock. Millions of shoppers participate each year, and with most retailers having online stores, you don't even need to leave your couch to make the most of the opportunities to save, and with our Black Friday deals hub, it's easier than ever to stop the real bargains.
Cyber Monday is the Monday immediately after Black Friday, and it is typically the busiest online shopping day in the calendar; this year, it falls on December 2. Retailers battle to get as many customers to buy their products during this period as possible, so it's one of the best times to pick up some great deals, especially skywatching tools and accessories, including telescopes.
Sales events are highlighted in many people's calendars, especially tech lovers, including gear and tech-loving astronomers. We covered Black Friday and Cyber Monday on Space.com in 2023 (and for many years before that), and we're confident there are big savings to be had across the board this year on everything from telescopes and binoculars to cameras, lenses, power banks, and star projectors.
Is it worth buying a telescope in the Black Friday sales? We'll look at some reasons to spend, some reasons not to, and some examples of the best deals we picked out during this sale period in 2023.
Best Pre-Black Friday telescope deals
Why buy a telescope on Black Friday/Cyber Monday?
With darker skies and a plethora of extra-terrestrial events happening over the last couple of months, telescope demand will be higher than it is throughout the rest of the year. Skywatchers have been treated to three concurrent supermoons, with another on the way in November. Of course, we've also witnessed the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS this month, inviting media coverage and likely welcoming new enthusiastic stargazers into the skywatching fold. Retailers know this, so we often see price hikes in the lead-up to Black Friday, making deals 'on the day' seem better than they really are.
That said, during October's Amazon Prime Day we saw several decent savings on telescopes. The Celestron AstroMaster 102AZ was reduced to $279.69, down from $349, and the Unistellar eQuinox 2 had a huge $800 reduction, selling for $1699. We can expect big discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday next month based on previous years of covering all the best Black Friday deals. Celestron, a well-known telescope manufacturer whose products are regulars in our 'best of' guides, often reduces their telescopes' price during such events. So do Unistellar, Meade and Orion.
For the past couple of years, following COVID, there had been a global supply issue with telescopes due to limited production and distribution, so they were harder to get hold of than usual. We keep all our guides, like the best telescopes, the best telescopes for beginners, and the best telescopes for seeing planets updated and check stock levels each month. We've found this situation to have improved, with most of the best models being ready to dispatch or with a short delay in delivery times.
Why not Amazon Prime Day?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are sales events adopted by most major retailers across many countries in the West. Amazon Prime Day is, as the name suggests, Amazon-centric. However, other retailers increasingly hop on the bandwagon as they know consumers will compare prices before pressing 'add to basket.' Prime Day is only for Amazon Prime members, so you won't benefit unless you pay for the Prime subscription.
This October saw what was ultimately 'Prime Day', named 'Amazon Big Deals Days'. In previous years, the only Prime Day was in July, so October gave consumers an extra opportunity to save. This might mean there is less stock for Black Friday and even less again for the January sales.
That said, telescopes are large items to store, so if retailers do have a bountiful stock after the Christmas rush, they are more likely to want to have a clearance sale of them over other, smaller products like binoculars and cameras. This is very much retailer-dependent, though, and you are unlikely to see the same price matches across stores as the discounts will depend on their individual stock levels.
Ultimately, if you're in the market for a telescope you want to use immediately, take advantage of the quickly approaching sales, but only if the product you want falls to a price you're happy paying.
Should I wait for Black Friday/Cyber Monday?
If you've made it this far through the year without buying the telescope of your dreams, despite a year of interesting celestial events, it could really pay to wait just over a month longer. We can't guarantee that the model you're after will be discounted, but there's a good chance it will be.
Some retailers start their sales the week or even weeks before Black Friday and extend them throughout the holiday season to encourage consumers to spend more money. Regularly check the price of the product you want in the run-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and if it drops to a price you're comfortable with, then go for it, especially if you can resist checking back on the days themselves 'just to see if you could have gotten it cheaper.' We have a Black Friday deals hub where we will continually check deals and update when they become live or expire.
How to find the best deals on Black Friday
We continually seek out the best telescope deals and share the best deals with our Space.com readers. Be sure to check in regularly with us, and most definitely on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, where we will have a whole dedicated team of bargain hunters working around the clock to scope out and share the best, genuine deals from several online retailers including Amazon, Adorama, B&H Photo, Walmart, Target, Newegg, Unistellar and more.
There are already several decent dealers around; retailers know that consumers will be researching products and making their Black Friday/Cyber Monday wishlists ahead of time, we know we are! You'll find a few examples of past deals (and a few that are already live) below, but check out our Telescope deals page and Black Friday deals hub for all the best deals live right now.
Telescope deals to expect
Here are some deals from the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales in 2023 so you know what kind of telescope deals and discounts you can expect this year.
• Celestron NexStar 8SE: Was $1599 and the 2023 sale price was $1299. Its current listing price on Amazon is $1599
• Celestron NexStar Evolution 9.25: Was $2849 and the 2023 sale price was $2399. Its current listing price on Amazon is $2849
• Celestron Travel Scope 70: Was $109.95 and the 2023 sale price was $72.07. Its current listing price on Amazon is $89.95 (already 18% off)
• Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ: Was $219.95 and the 2023 sale price was $168.68. Its current listing price on Amazon is $149.99 (32%off and better than last year's sale price already)
• Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ: Was $479.95 and the 2023 sale price was $319.67. Its current listing price on Amazon is $439.95. This will likely drop further.
Though some genuinely great deals are expected, you need to remember not to get caught up in the sales hype and spend unnecessarily. We'd recommend getting ahead of the game, researching and planning exactly what you want (we have plenty of guides to help you), and sticking to that list on the day. It is very easy to get distracted by all of the discounts. There is no use really wanting a Celestron telescope, ending up with another brand just because the deal looked good, only to regret it later. Or even worse, buying a vacuum, air fryer or coffee machine you didn't need!
It's worth noting down the price of the telescope(s) you want now, ahead of the event; it's no secret that retailers bump their pre-sales prices or mark up the 'before' price so the discount looks more impressive. There is also a chrome extension called 'The Camelizer' that shows fluctuations in price over a given time. Don't feel rushed into buying something if the deal is disingenuous, even with the big countdown clock at the top of the page (which is likely there to do just that!)
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