So You Wanna Buy a Telescope: Advice for Beginners (2015)

A small refractor on a camera tripod is too frustrating, and a small cassegrain on a computerized mount often is too much fuss to align and set up.

2) Subscribe? Er, see if you can buy individual copies first. I dropped my subs because, well, the articles all started to become pablum. Probably worth picking up a few issues when you start out.

3) Yes, join a club or tag along. There's no better way to get an idea of what it's about than to meet some enthusiasts and look through their scopes. And a really friendly and helpful crowd, in my experience.

Binocs: I bought 10x50s, and I wish I had bought 7x50s. The higher magnification is nice and all, and I can hold them steady enough...for a little bit. You can use 7x50 without strain for a lot longer. Also, yes, do buy binocs. You'd be amazed what you can see with a pair of 7x50s that you can't see with naked eyes. It's a great, cheap, convenient way to get started.

Telescopes: buy one that you can afford and that you will use. Like my binoc choice above, I bought something actually nice but big enough that it was a pain to haul around and set up. Save that for later. Buy something that you will pull out on a whim and have a nice evening. This is a very individual choice, of course. If you live in a fairly dark place and the farthest you will take your scope is to your back yard, by all means get that light bucket. :)

Overall very solid advice in the article.

I just have one low power eye piece, I think the 26mm plossl. Saturn looks pretty much like the simulated 100x photo.

I'd like to get a Barlow and a higher mag eye piece for looking at craters on the moon.

I've messed with photography. It's a lot of trouble. Most of the time the easiest thing is to use my phone to take a picture through the eye piece.

Its so important to make people realize , one does not need to have telescope right way. A decent pair of binocular (and probably a book with sky charts) is enough to spot the 1st few objects in the sky. If the hunger for celestial objects then one can go for the telescope else there is high chance the telescope will eat dust at home.

The other problem with hastily buy a telescope is that we end up buying a beginners one with low budget which is is usually no better than good binoculars of same power. (magnification and light gathering). It is netter wait and have a decent budget to buy a good telescope later on.