Telescope sales are on the rise partly due to the ‘Elon Musk effect’ with demands for telescopes growing as space fans want to get a glimpse of Mars, Saturn and Uranus
Stargazers are peering at the heavens in record numbers as telescope sales soar.
Demand is rocketing to astronomical levels as space fans zoom in on Mars, Saturn and Uranus. Purchases of telescopes, which can cost anything from £80-£7,000, are up 1,380% on this time last year.
Experts put it down to a string of factors, including the “Elon Musk” effect. The SpaceX boss has sparked huge interest with his plans to colonise Mars.
There has also been a surge in ET-hunting and UFO-spotting here, with Brits the most alien-obsessed nation in Europe. Around 650,000 of us searched for ‘proof of alien life’ on Google last year.
And sales got a further boost from last week’s ‘Planetary Parade’, with seven of our solar system neighbours visible from Earth.
An Argos spokesman said: “Recent celestial events and the growing interest in outer space on social media have sparked a trend amongst Brits, who are increasingly turning their curiosity for the cosmos into a serious hobby.”
Space fan Gareth Walters spent £400 on a telescope – and loves looking out for “weird objects”. The 45 year old, from St Albans, Herts, said: “ You can actually see the surface of the Moon – properly – it’s amazing.”
Meanwhile, just two months after a massive explosion rained flaming debris down on the Turks and Caicos, SpaceX has had another disaster.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship lifted off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on March 6, 2025, during its 8th test flight. But things quickly went south, with the spacecraft plummeting back to Earth in a fiery mess, minutes into its test flight.
This time, wreckage from the doomed flight was spotted raining down over Florida.
The 403-foot Starship blasted off and while SpaceX managed to catch the first-stage booster with its giant mechanical arms, things quickly fell apart. As the rocket sped east toward the Indian Ocean for a controlled re-entry, the control room lost contact.
In a statement on X, SpaceX said Starship broke apart — what it described as “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” — during its ascent.
“Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” SpaceX wrote. “We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn.”