Question for any amateur stargazers

I HIGHLY recommend you find your local Astronomy Club and attend a meeting, become a member.

Most will loan a newbie a telescope to try. Go to their sponsored viewings and look through different types of scopes.

Don't be buying one without some knowledge and experience. Learn from the club.


Oh, and one more piece of advice. There will be some members glad handing you and offering to sell theirs to you. This may or not be good. Sometimes people just want to offload their junk on a newbie. Resist this. DONT BUY ANYTHING until you have a good solid mentor or two and you gain some knowledge. This is true in ANY hobby.

Good luck to you.

I bought a Celestron SkyProdigy 6 a couple of years ago. Really nice scope and dummy proof. More than you want to spend though. The first time I saw the rings of Saturn and the different layers of Jupiter and its moons I was blown away. It really makes you realize just how insignificant we humans are in the whole scheme of things.

Along the lines of Sidecar's recommendation might be a better first time purchase. A spotting scope or binoculars really makes a difference in the skies, but also has other uses on Earth as well.

A good test I've heard is aim the binos or scope at the 2nd to last star in the big dipper's handle... it's a double star and you should be able to make out two distinct points, Mizar and Alcor. Alcor is actually a binary system itself, and Mizar (the much brighter of the two) is actually four stars, and the six of them are linked together by gravity.

We/she really doesn't know yet. She said she has always wanted one.
We live in Virginia, she grew up in Pa, neither has had a lot of opportunity to see different areas with dark enough skies. The state park across the lake from us host a dark sky event, but I had surgery the day before the event this year, so we missed it, and we hope not to be here next year.
She loves just sitting on the deck and watching, we have laid out in the hot tub to watch the perseid showers, had wanted to watch for more.
Saturn was within the realm of possibilities, Mars as well, beyond that we have to learn,,,,

I use a Celestron 100mm objective spotter with an industry standard 120mm eyepiece for game spotting and bird watching and stargazing when I have time. It's a nice scope and very clear. I use the Celestron tripod too.

All in, was around 700 bucks with a 60X zoom eyepiece but it takes any eyepiece available and PhoneSkope makes a cell phone adapter for it so you cn take pictures of what you see on your cell phone.

Very happy with it.

What do you want to look at? You don't need a computer for the moons of Jupiter or rings of Saturn. The Moon is breathtaking with a small reflector and a zoom eyepiece.

If you're thinking of seeing colorful nebula or galaxy clusters like they show on TV you need a big mirror and long exposure cryogenic camera.

The computer will help find things like binary systems, or get you a closer view of the Seven Sisters or Orion's Sword.

I was looking at this one, 130mm reflector
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007UQNNQ/ref=psdc_499154_t3_B0007UQNKY

Had also looked at a couple without the onboard computer with larger mirror, figured the computerized controls were the way to go. But was worried about it getting bounced around if I went too big.

Orion 8ti is more than your budget, but is really sweet.

Reflector for the stars, refractor for land and sea... that's about all I remember from my stargazing days.

I had tiny Meade 114mm equatorial reflector with the basic Autostar computer tracking system.

It was too small to handle cameras of that day.

Years later the Autostar was greatly improved using GPS in addition to guide stars.

The smaller compound reflectors could be set up on a table top, and had more advanced computers.

Camera connection is mainly dependant on the focuser construction, which is an easy part for manufacturers to cheap out on. A lightweight plastic or pot metal focus tube and plastic gears can't support a camera very well, and is hard to precisely adjust.