By the UK Telescope Mounts – Expert Reviews & Buyer's Guides Team · Updated May 2026 · Independent, reader-supported

What Is a GoTo Telescope Mount and Do You Really Need One?

If you're shopping for your first telescope or considering an upgrade, you've probably encountered the term "GoTo mount" and wondered whether it's worth the extra cost. The short answer: it depends on what you want from astronomy. But before you decide, it's worth understanding what these mounts actually do, how reliable they are, and whether they suit your observing style.

What Is a GoTo Mount?

A GoTo mount is a motorised telescope mount that can automatically locate and track celestial objects. Unlike a manual alt-azimuth mount (where you push the telescope by hand to find things), a GoTo mount uses electric motors and a hand controller—or smartphone app—to slew the telescope to any star, planet, nebula, or galaxy you select from a database. Once you've aligned it, the mount follows your chosen object across the sky throughout the night, keeping it centred in your eyepiece without any physical effort on your part.

The name comes from the command itself: you tell the mount to "go to" an object, and it does. It sounds like magic when you first see it work, but there's actually straightforward mathematics and engineering behind it.

How GoTo Alignment Works

The foundation of any GoTo mount is the alignment process, and this is where most beginners get confused—so let's walk through it properly.

When you set up a GoTo mount, it doesn't inherently know where it's pointing. The motors can move, but without a reference point, the mount can't translate your "go to Andromeda" command into actual motor movements. That's where the alignment comes in.

Two-star alignment is the standard method. Here's what happens: you manually point the mount at a bright, easily identifiable star (like Polaris or Sirius). You centre it in your eyepiece using the hand controller's arrow buttons. The mount records the position. Then you select a second bright star—preferably somewhere else in the sky, not too close to the first—and repeat the process. That's it. With those two reference points, the mount's computer can now calculate its orientation, orientation angle, and local latitude with enough accuracy to find most objects automatically.

This is why GoTo mounts perform better in darker skies: brighter reference stars are easier to centre precisely, and fewer bright objects means less confusion when you're aligning. If you're observing from a suburban garden, you'll still get reliable results, but you might need to be more deliberate about choosing bright alignment stars.

Popular GoTo Systems

Two technologies dominate the UK market, and they work in subtly different ways.

SynScan (made by Skywatcher) is the most common system on affordable GoTo mounts. The hand controller connects to motors via a cable, and it uses the telescope's encoders—sensors that track motor rotation—to compute your target's position. SynScan databases contain hundreds of thousands of objects, and the system is remarkably robust. Many SynScan mounts are now WiFi-enabled, letting you control them via a smartphone app instead of the physical hand controller.

StarSense (made by Celestron) uses a small automated camera built into the telescope's focuser tube that identifies stars in your field of view, recognises them against its database, and self-aligns without you having to manually centre reference stars. It's faster and more convenient than traditional two-star alignment, though it does require reasonably dark skies to work reliably. StarSense units tend to be pricier, but many observers find the convenience worth it.

Both systems are reliable enough for backyard astronomy. Occasional alignment drift is normal—if you're observing for six hours, you might drift slightly—but both can track accurately enough that objects remain comfortably in a 25mm eyepiece (which has a wide field of view) throughout the night.

The Beginner Doubts, Addressed

"Won't it just fail in the dark?" Not if you align it properly. Two-star alignment is rock-solid as long as you pick bright, recognisable stars and centre them carefully. Most alignment failures come from sloppy centering or misidentifying your alignment stars—not the technology itself.

"Is it overcomplicating things?" Only if you've never used one. The learning curve is genuine but shallow. Within your second or third night out, alignment becomes automatic. Many beginners find it liberating: instead of wrestling with star charts and manual navigation, you spend more time actually observing.

"Are they actually more expensive?" Compared to a manual mount, yes—expect to pay £500–£2,000 more depending on aperture and build quality. Compared to a year's worth of eyepieces and accessories you'd buy while struggling with manual navigation, the cost is reasonable. That said, if you're on a tight budget, a good manual mount with a red-dot finder is perfectly capable.

"What if it breaks?" GoTo mounts are over 30 years mature as consumer technology. Modern units are reliable, though they do require a bit of care: keep them dry, don't force the hand controller, and store motors in the off position. Repairs are possible and often affordable because the components are standardised.

Do You Really Need One?

Honestly, no—but you might want one.

If you enjoy hunting for objects using star charts, binoculars, and manual navigation, there's genuine satisfaction in that process. Manual mounts are cheaper, simpler, and never need batteries. You're not missing out.

But if you want to maximise observing time, especially on shorter winter nights or if you find yourself more interested in what you're looking at than how you find it, a GoTo mount removes friction. You point at more objects in a single night, study them longer, and spend less time squinting at charts. For many observers—particularly older hobbyists with joint problems, or parents trying to keep children interested—GoTo mounts make a real difference.

The honest assessment: a GoTo mount won't make a poor telescope good, and a manual mount won't stop you becoming a skilled observer. It's a convenience, not a necessity. But it's a convenience that works reliably in UK skies, and for many people, it changes how much they actually use their equipment.

If you're leaning towards GoTo, the next step is understanding which mounts suit different apertures and budgets. We've reviewed the best options for UK observers in our roundup of GoTo mounts, and if you're still weighing computerised versus manual, our guide to computerised mounts for beginners covers that decision in detail.