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Originally Posted by Lacey
 Ok......After such an astronomical amount of information I have altered my wish list...being budget up to $500 (I know your crying) forget bird/land watching, basically I would like to see the bones on the moon (from when the cow didn't make it over). Good brand, not too big that I can't move, not too tech that I can't operate. I would have to purchase (if required) a tripod with it as there is not even a camera shop here, and Big W only sells flimsy ones. |
"not too tech": You'll probably want to stick to Dobsonian mounted reflectors, or alt-azimuth mounted (i.e., camera tripod style with slow motion) refractors.
"bones on the moon": I guess you mean you want to get as much magnification as possible. Here you're always limited by the atmosphere to somewhere between 150 & 300x, depending on conditions. You'll need a long focal length refractor of at the very least 80mm aperture or a Dob (read on).
"Good brand": The only
really "good brands" are the ones that cost several thousands of dollars up. Pretty much all affordable scopes are no-names, or branded no-names made in China or Taiwan by factories that sell to the well known companies like Celestron, Orion, Meade etc.
"not too big": If I had your budget I'd get a 200mm Dobsonian. It's big enough to show you heaps but small enough to easily move by yourself. At $399 from Andrews, you can spend the extra $100 on accessories. (You will probably want a collimating tool of some sort for starters.) Hey, 7 months ago I did have your budget. And I did get the 200mm Dob. And I don't regret it one bit. A tremendous telescope for such a small investment. Especially at a dark site, it's mindblowing fun! (but some people think I'm weird.
) BTW: Dobsonian refers to the simple alt-azimuth mount. No need for tripod.
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 Dare I ask what you think of the:
MEADE ETX-70AT COMPUTER GUIDED TELESCOPE ($350)
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Never looked through one, but I believe 70 stands for 70mm aperture, which is rather limiting. You're probably spending more on the goto with that one than on the optics.