Beginner telescope season is upon us and, once again, we are doing our best to help our customers buy that beginner's telescope. One of the chronic headaches involving beginners telescopes is the issue of magnification. It is the single most overrated and over-hyped aspect of astronomy and I have no patience with manufacturers who prey upon this beginner's misconception to sell their products. For the record, the single biggest factors involving actual telescope performance are aperture (diameter of the lens or mirror) and optical quality. These two are FAR more important than magnification. Astronomy is not about magnification - for the most part, the things astronomers want to see are plenty big enough - it's about seeing faint objects and about resolving fine detail. These goals require aperture and optical quality - without them, magnification is useless. In fact, a lowly 7x magnification binocular is capable of seeing many nebulae, star clusters and even galaxies. To all you folks shopping for a first telescope, ignore any reference to magnification in a telescopes description or labeling on the box. Here's an article I wrote with the beginner in mind, How to choose the right telescope. I also believe that the best first telescope is sometimes a binocular, so you might also add my article, Astronomical Binoculars