Hi Blackcat,
to IIS, and Happy New Year.
The good news on the options you present is the binos will last you a life time.
Binoculars are a fantastic tool. Some deep sky objects are actually best seen through binos and not a telescope too, such as the whole Large and Small Magellanic clouds. I've always got them with me, and from my home in Sydney, indispensible to find anything as they are capable of showing those stars that light pollution knocks out.
Yes a camera tripod can handle them, but it needs to be a sturdy one as 70mm binos are not exactly light-weight.
The bad news is the Heritage 76 is very poor as a scope choice. I'm saying this through direct experience, not hear-say.
Saddly, the 76 is made with a very cheap to manufacture spherical mirror. These don't focus light at the same point as do parabolic mirrors do. And escpecially at the fast focal ratio that the Heritage is, the problems spherical mirrors present are increased. It is only good as a low power telescope, as the image it creates at high power is unusable. Compounding this is the aweful quality eyepieces included.
Yes, the heritage 76 IS the same scope as the Celestron FirstScope (Skywatcher owns Celestron). It is such a shame that this little scope is so poorly made, as with a little more quality care would have created a real cult following for it. Instead, it is a rip-off.
I still do have my FirstScope. Remember me saying it is only good for wide field, low power use, well, this little scope serves as an overgrown finder on my 17.5" dob. I'm aware of its short comings, so I've employed it on its only strength for this purpose.
You will be most best served with the binoculars, Blackcat, and save your money then for a better quality scope when the time comes.
Mental.
)
