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The best way to avoid paying several hundred dollars for a telescope is to build your own. If you're like me and putting up book shelves in the living room is a full-scale operation that is repeatedly put off week after week, it is probably better to buy a telescope. Still, anyone with even a minimal mechanical ability can build a suitable reflecting telescope. There are many excellent books that give detailed instructions on building telescopes.
The first task in constructing a telescope is to buy a mirror blank and grind it into the correct parabolic shape. This is the most time-consuming part of building your own telescope. Any book on telescope making will explain how to about forming the correct parabolic shape and testing the mirror. Once the mirror has been completed, it must be placed in some sort of tube, with a secondary mirror and an eyepiece.
You can buy ready-made tubes. In fact, you may buy any of the components of a telescope, which you do not want to construct from scratch and then assemble them together with your mirror and eyepiece. A tube may be as simple as you wish it to be. A successful method of tube construction is to nail four wooden boards together. Some skygazers do not bother with a tube at all. They instead construct some sort of skeleton to keep the mirror and eyepiece in place.
The main advantage of building your own telescope is that for a minimal financial investment, you receive in return the maximum amount of telescope. Your invest your money, time and energy in the components of the telescope that you, not some manufacturer, consider important. You are no longer primarily limited by your pocketbook, but by your imagination and skill.
It is probably best to start with a relatively small four-inch reflector. If you find the experience enjoyable (some people get so involved in telescope making that they almost never get around to telescope using), then go on to larger models. You will be quite amazed at the results of your firstattempt. Almost every issue of "Sky and Telescope" has examples of amateur-designed and built telescopes that are for more powerful and beautiful than comparable store-bought models.
If you build your own, it will be unnecessary to go to a dealer for periodic repairs and adjustments. There is also the satisfaction of observing the heavens with an instrument made with your own hands. Don't expect me to wax eloquently about the experience; I bought my telescope.