[mura_gadi (Steve)]

Hello,

If aperture is king, usability are the aces...

Get something that is easy to setup, transport and pack away. Martin suggestion of the 5" tabletop fills a lot of requirements for both beginner and intermediate use. The 5" offers a lot of capability and the easy of setup rates very highly.

Next to seeing conditions, your time at the eyepiece is just about the next biggest factor. A seasoned visual astronomer will get more details from the same scope setup as a beginner. So, get something that you will use and use for extended periods.

A lot of it will come down to your daughter and yourself of course. The larger 2nd hand Dob will mean that your daughter will need help setting up and packing away each time. But everything will look a little bigger and have a little more detail(aperture).

A GOTO scope will offer easy access to celestial objects, also very handy for tracking solar objects that move very fast once under magnification. Star maps and such are another learning curve, but teach you the sky. Both will have their fans and distractors.

I'm not sure if Christmas is too far away, but, I'd be suggesting that your daughter waits for Christmas. The extra money from Santa might be enough to buy the 5" tabletop GOTO.



Steve
Ps. Does she have access to a mobile phone now for astronomy apps?

Better to have a scope you use regularly and wishing for something bigger, than a bigger telescope you don't use and feel guilty about.

PPS. Sorry all of the above assumes you do not have a permanent setup for the scope or a rollout trolley etc. If you have the ability to rollout the scope all setup then aperture is king again