Thanks in advance.

Do you need it to be portable, and what is your budget (sorry, had to ask)? Are you willing to DIY? Using for casual viewing or do you plan on doing astrophotography or CCD capture?

Thanks for your response. I am not looking to DIY. I was trying to keep in under $1000. It's mostly for my wife for casual looking. I had heard Celestron was the best. Do you agree with this? I was looking to get something good even if it is for casual looking. Who knows maybe it could be a new hobby. Although I do want something that is relatively easy to use. I was briefly looking at the Celestron C6S. See link below if interested. It doesn't have to be portable.

Thanks in advance.

• http://celestron.telescopes.com/products/celestron-c6-s-gt-schmidt-cassegrain-wxlt-coatings-38338.html

1) Subscription to Astronomy and after a year Sky and Telescope

2) A good star chart. Learn the stars

3) A nice pair of binoculars. You'd be amazed what can see. This might really be all you need for casual gazing.

http://celestron.telescopes.com/products/celestron-skymaster-15x70-center-focus-14955.html

4) A Dobsonian is going to be your best bang-for-the-buck. If you are not doing photography, then a star drive is really over kill. The new drives are nice in that they don't need polar alignment and catalogue objects can be brought in to the field of view with the push of a button, but for me that really takes the fun out. My rec for a Dob is actually being closed out. This 12" Dob is going to have about 2x the light gathering power of the Celestron

http://celestron.telescopes.com/products/zhumell-12-inch-dobsonian-reflector-telescope-44098.html

PS You think audio gets expensive, well.....