Hi Debs,
Boil the kettle, put your slippers on and make a cuppa, because I go on for ages!!!
Charsiubau has some excellent points regarding your boyfriend's intended use of the scope. Dont buy him a Dobsonian (not really portable, and not able to be used for land viewing - goes for EQ mounted Reflectors too).
I have only been using a telescope (the details of which are on my signature below) for about 2 months now and have found the following summary of information from all of the experts on this site and talking to lots and lots of telescope shops;
1) Aperture is KING, Aperture is the size of the opening on the telescope. The bigger the better, as more light gets in, therefore you can see more things that are not visible to the naked eye!
2) Binoculars are the absolute BEST item for someone who has nothing, needs portability and you are not sure of their impending
addiction to stargazing (it probably will happen). If they get bored of looking up at the night sky, they can use 'em at the footy or down the beach quickly and easily.
3) If he gets hooked, you
will lose him to the backyard on clear nights for hours at a time or maybe even to the local park where there is no streetlights so he can get a better view of the objects he has been dying to see. Simple solution to this, YOU join him too as it can be great fun.
4) No matter what the magazines and telescope boxes are trying to make you think, you WONT see much colour in most things. Everything is a sort of grey / black and white / or red / blue colour depending on what your looking at. This is because of human night vision, but I wont go into that here.
My First Time Buyers guide for you is therefore this;
1) An ALT / Azimuth mounted telescope. This is one that can be used for land viewing as well as stars. It is uncomplicated, simple, stable and easy for anyone to use. An equatorial mount is not as easy (even for my gadget/technical/crazy mind) and cannot be used for land viewing without a lot of yoga lessons. Let him buy one himself later if he gets the bug and knows whats-what.
2) Buy as big an aperture scope as you can get for the money. Once he gets the hang of finding things, he may be disappointed at the view if the scope is too small and / or things are too dim to see.
3) You will see more stars / nebulae / clusters of stars and planets in
dark skies away from street lights, houses and city glow. Simple as that!
4) DONT get ripped off by buying from the wrong people, even if you are in a hurry. There will be a surprising amount of stuff he will want to buy afterwards and if you bought something overpriced to start with, you will never forgive yourselves later if you havent done your homework. Waiting 2-7 days by buying interstate is worth it if you can save $100! He will even get intrigued if you tell him its being couriered over special delivery for his Birthday!
You mentioned your budget of $300 max, with this in mind, I have two options that fit(ish) the criteria. I have checked the best telescope sites and found the best price / size / ease of use compromise (in my humble opinion)
Option A - Telescope
Skywatcher (
SK909AZ3) 90mm x 900mm Alt Azimuth telescope (5 YR Warranty), comes with 2 eyepieces of 25mm and 10mm.
It has a larger 90mm aperture than the one suggested by Charsiubau which means he will see more, and it also has a 900mm focal length (FL) which is MUCH longer than the other one. Magnification is worked out by FL divided by eyepiece FL in mm, eg. 900mm / 10mm = 90 x magnification. Add a barlow later on to boost this 2x to 180x which is the limit of this scope. The other one had only 140x maximum. Bigger magnification = bigger image.
Go To Andrews website
here and scroll down the Skywatcher telescope page to find this listing
90 x 900 AZ3...A$329 - Yes, I know its over budget, but its a great buy for the extra $29!
Option B - Binoculars
You can buy some quite decent 70mm High contrast 11 X 70 binoculars which are superb for Astronomical and Land viewing and only cost $129. For night viewing, I recommend an optional binocluar tripod (arms get VERY tired) for $129 (Medium duty, handles up to 80mm aperture binoculars) and a Binocular tripod adaptor for $15.
All up $273 (plus freight?)
These items are also on the Andrews website link above under Binoculars and Andrews Telescope accessories.
The reason I suggest Andrews Communications over anyone else is simple. Best prices, best service, best support. Did I mention best prices? If you can find the same scope somewhere else at a better price, its probably not the same scope. If it really is....buy it, because I have never seen a price that beats Andrews Comms.
The reason I chose Skywatcher is because of the quality, price, they have a 5YR warranty which is 3-4yrs better than any other brand in this bracket and Andrews Comms have FREE FREIGHT on Skywatcher telescopes for a limited time. Shipping a telescope to Perth could cost up to $100 dollars or more extra.
FYI.
My scope cost $450, everything else except the 20mm and 10mm eyepieces cost $317 all up so I have spent $767 total. If I had bought my telescope from Andrews, I would have saved $90.
Ahh, yeah, you
must also buy him a round planetarium thingy (about $15) and an Astronomy 2008 magazine ($20) as these are fabulous references for finding stuff, without them, you wont know what's what.
There ya go, my opinions on what to get and where to get them. Do your shopping and compare the prices, and good luck. Sorry for the massive essay. I told you I can kinda get carried away.
Maybe I am biased because I have this sort of gear, but its from my beginner's experience.
OOPS - almost forgot,
sign him up to Ice In Space!!!
Cheers for now!
Chris
cheers 
but its a little out of wack at the moment 
im getting it finally fixed in 2 weeks woohoooo 
