First Telescope?

[ZodiaK]

I'd go with something from the Celestron Powerseeker line. Buy as much aperture as you can afford, and put it on an equatorial mount. Celestron makes it easy to do this, as equatorial mounts are designated with an EQ in the model name, and the aperture in millimeters is designated by the number. So one designated 114EQ has a 114mm aperture on an equatorial mount (also referred to as GEM, German Equatorial Mount).

You definitely want the GEM, as with proper polar alignment, it will allow you to keep the object you're looking at in view as the Earth rotates underneath the "celestial sphere". A manual alt-az mount is only good for terrestrial viewing.

I actually just bought a slightly-used Powerseeker 114EQ for $100 US (which if Google is right, is about your price range), and am actually quite impressed with it. The actual optics are significantly better than I was expecting, the only real complaint is that the stock finderscope is ass. But if you're smart, you can figure out a way around it's poor alignment. Just don't expect Hubble-quality views with this scope. But for $100, it's tough to beat.

To get an idea of what you can expect with it, at 225x (that is, using the 4mm eyepiece without the included 3x Barlow lens) Jupiter and the Galilean (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto) moons fit comfortably in the field of view. Cloud bands (dark) and zones (light) were easily distinguishable. This view was also possible at 135x (20mm eyepiece with Barlow). The Red Spot would have been visible if it was facing Earth at the time, I just didn't feel like waiting five hours.

lovely recommendation there! thanks!

[cantab]

Regardless of budget, I feel the best way to start in astronomy is with a decent pair of binoculars. It's how I started, with a pair of Bresser 10x50 bins costing about £35 (though I suggest spending more like £50 to assure quality), Phillips' "Stargazing with Binoculars", and Taki's Star Atlas. On portability, quick set-up, and ease of use binoculars are going to beat just about any telescope hands down. The wide field of view shows more of the sky at once, meaning it's easier to find things and navigate the sky. Heck, just point them in the general direction of the Milky Way and you'll be rewarded. As for specific views, there's plenty to see. Just on my first two nights I viewed Uranus, the moons of Jupiter, the Pleiades and Hyades clusters, and the Andromeda Galaxy. True, some of them took me a bit of time and patience to find.

In general, whatever instrument you get there are going to be two types of things to see. There's a smaller number of things I think of as things for looking at: Big, bright, lots of detail. With binoculars, these include the Moon, and bright open clusters and asterisms like the Pleiades or the Coathanger. Then there's a much larger number of things I call things for looking for: "Faint fuzzies", small things that look like stars, or both. With binoculars, these include Uranus, Neptune, asteroids, and most of the Messier catalogue. The challenge is in seeing them in the first place; I might easily spend ten minutes or more looking in one place before I'm confident that yes, I am seeing that faint nebula or distant galaxy, and when I do it's quite the feeling of achievement. (Or checking back and forth between chart and view to pick out which of the "stars" is actually Uranus.)

Getting a bigger and better scope is of course going to turn many of the things that used to be "looking fors" into "looking ats", and in turn will make many more things barely visible. The upshot is that binoculars or a small scope will give you just as much of the feel and flavour of observing as a big one. If you run out of things you want to view in a small instrument, that's fine, consider upgrading, but if you don't enjoy it at all then you probably still wouldn't enjoy using something with 10 times the price and capability.

As far as telescopes go, I own the Skywatcher Heritage 76 that's been mentioned. It's the third I've bought, and the first I've really got on with. Mechanically I can hardly fault it; it moves when I want it to, and doesn't when I don't, with minimal wobble. (Though it's only as steady as the table you put it on!). For ease of use it's good too; like binoculars, it's got a wide view. (Tip with the small magnifying finders: look through with both eyes open, and align a bright star or planet seen through the finder with what you see with your other eye). Optically it's not so strong, a 3 inch scope with a spherical (rather than parabolic) mirror is always going to be limited, but it's not atrocious. It does nicely on widefield views and open clusters, with the option for higher magnification turning clusters like M35, fuzzy blobs in binoculars, into the groups of stars that they are. It's also good for faint fuzzy hunting, and decent on the Moon (but then practically everything makes the Moon look good). Where it's pretty pants is on planets, especially with the supplied eyepieces giving a maximum of just 30x magnification; Jupiter's two main belts (and its moons) and Saturn's rings can be spotted, but don't expect much more.

I also own a second-hand Celestron Powerseeker 114EQ, again one that's been mentioned. That was the second scope I bought. The few views I've had through it were good, but the equatorial mount just drove me up the creek, and I seemed to spend more time futzing around (and hunting for dropped small parts in the dark...) than actually observing. It's now off its original mount, and shoved away in a corner on the Dobsonian mount I started and never finished building for it.

In summary: Get a decent guidebook, and 10x50 binoculars or the Skywatcher Heritage 76. And print out Taki's Star Atlas. Oh, and download Stellarium.

Oh, and one final note. Whatever you get, buy from retailer with a proper reputation for astro gear such as First Light Optics, Wex Photographic, the Widescreen Centre, Green Witch Cambridge, etc. You can expect better service. Don't buy from Amazon, eBay, Jessops, Curry's, places like that where there's no real knowledge of what they're selling. See http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/90-supplier-reviews/ for reviews.

Edited March 24, 2014 by cantab

[Mr. Entropy]

lovely recommendation there! thanks!

Glad to help. But don't ignore the guys suggesting binoculars. I got started with an old pair of 7x50 binoculars that I found while cleaning my attic once several years ago. I still use them for wide field views and rough target acquisition. A decent pair of binoculars is a great companion to any telescope. As with telescopes, aperture is the main thing you should be looking at, 50mm objective lenses at minimum.

Also, you might want a planisphere that covers your latitude, and there are a few great star atlases and books to guide you through the sky. Nightwatch by Terrence Dickenson is the book of choice for many amateur astronomers. You can get it dirt cheap on Amazon.