Telescope recommendations?

Get an 8 inch dobsonian. Can be had around 500 new. Try to find a used one for even cheaper. Get a good Barlow lense and some budget eyepieces. If you decide you like it after a few months, you can upgrade the eyepieces

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this is the correct answer.

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maybe, maybe not. The OP should find an astronomy club in his area and attend the monthly star party and gaze through several different types of scopes.


I've sold several of my telescopes over the past year so I'm down to only six. (You just can't have too many telescopes) The telescope I'm using most now is a 4½ reflector, but I've used 4" refractor frequently and an 11" Schmidt-Cassegrain (somewhat of a hybrid between a reflector and refractor).

My 4½" reflector, the Unistellar eQuinox, is the most user-friendly telescope I've ever encountered. It aligns itself and goes to whatever object you command it, but it is also rather expensive for a first telescope.

While the 8" Dobsonian is an excellent telescope, it may no be as user friendly as a 3" refractor on a decent GoTo mount.

For your viewing pleasure here is an image of three galaxies in Constellation Leo, I made last night with my 4½" Unistellar.



and here is an image of Andromeda Galaxy I made with a 3" refractor several years ago:

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maybe, maybe not.

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What are your price points?

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What are your price points?

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I'd like to find the best bang for the buck in 3 different levels:

Under $1000
$1000-$3000
Over $3000

Honestly probably looking in the $1000-2000 range-ish.

I've had 7, 8, 12, and 14" meade lx 200's
9 1/4" celestron SCT
Tak FS102
And a Televue NP127IS

I still have the Televue and the 7" lx200. The 7" meade mak is awesome on planets. I would jump on another 9 1/4" celestron or a 11" celestron if one came along.

If you have light polluted skies, don't waste money on extra aperture that you won't be able to take advantage of without a trip to a dark sky site, unless you plan to do that.

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and here is an image of Andromeda Galaxy I made with a 3" refractor several years ago:

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My parents bought some nice property on a good bit of acreage in Montana. Needless to say they have some great views and it’s plenty dark around them. They’ve turned it into an Airbnb when they aren’t staying there and I’m wanting to contribute to the house and I had a telescope in mind.

I’m as novice as they come (i.e. I think I looked into a telescope once before at some point in my life) and like OP don’t know where to start. My parents for sure and guests alike probably don’t care to “create” any images like you are able to do, but do you actually get views like that pictured above just by looking into your telescope? If so, I’m sold.

They dont care much for technology but I know they’d love to roll one, smoke one and sit on their porch and look through the telescope all night on a clear night and take in sights like that.

One question that seems to be a factor in choosing a scope is whether you have any specific targets in mind, i.e. planets vs deep sky / distant objects. If you don't and just want general observing it won't differentiate as much but if you have a strong leaning, it could. Planets can be better served by a smaller aperture scope, say 4" refractor, with high quality optics for the clearest image. Deep sky stuff is fainter so you want a bigger "photon bucket" so a 10" reflector (Dobsonian, Schmidt-Cassegrain) would make more sense. If this is staying on a back deck and not being carted around to star parties the bigger scope is less of an issue. (Note, I haven't used a scope myself in quite some time; there are a lot of tech features and so on with automated target finding etc. that is really cool, in addition to imaging.)

I'll admit I don't understand virtually any terminology mentioned. Lol. Sigh.

I have plenty of dark sky at my place here in Arkansas. Same thing at my parent's place. It's even better sky at their place. Nice, remote, and wide open areas.

So, I wouldn't lug it around much. Maybe once every couple of months. The rest of the time would be on my deck.

Don't be intimidated by the terminology. If you have dark sky access then that really opens up what scopes you can take advantage of. I've liked the schmidts due to their compact tube size for going somewhere, even though they don't necessarily deliver the sharpest views. If all you are interested in is visual, then a dob is hard to beat. Nothing wrong with a 4" doublet refractor. If you think you will want to get into photography, then you might want to read up on the usual progression one goes through by upgrading scopes and then mounts. Where one might have been better off just buying a higher end setup from the get go and learn it through and through. I've pulled my losmandy g11 mount out of the scope shed and am going to replace it with one of the newer mounts that do too many cool things to even begin to discuss.

It's hell getting old.