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2What's really important is how much weight she will want to carry and setup, and how much time she'll want to spend setting things up.

Eric's suggestions were spot on, of course.

You can get a lot of telescope for $300. The best bang for the buck would be a 6" or 8" dobsonian (newtonian scope mounted on dobsonian base). You used to be able to get a Zhumell 8" for $300, but a 6" should be a sure thing in that price range. And they require no setup, but they are the size of a small canon, with a 4' long 6" (or 8") diameter tube mounted on a base. They are fairly light for their size too, but still not super light or easy to lug around because of their size. Also, the Newtonian tubes require occasional adjustment (collimation) to get the best image.

An equatorial mount will be heavy, and requires a fair amount of setup to be useful for tracking.

A small reflector like a Newtonian or a compound like a Catadiopteric (sp) on an alt/az mount will be the simplest.

I started with a short tube 102mm (4") refractor (on something like an alt/az mount or photo tripod) and that worked well too. That will probably be the lightest scope with the easiest setup.

Types of Telescopes - Tips for Buying Your First Telescope

You'll encounter three basic types of telescopes:

Refractors have a lens at the front of the tube — it's the type you're probably most familiar with. While generally low maintenance, they quickly get expensive as the aperture increases. In refractor lingo, an apochromat offers better optical quality (and is more expensive) than an achromat of the same size. Watch an animation of light passing through a refractor.

Reflectors gather light using a mirror at the rear of the main tube. For a given aperture, these are generally the least expensive type, but you'll need to adjust the optical alignment every now and then — more often if you bump it around a lot — but that adjustment (called collimation) is straightforward. Watch an animation of light passing through a reflector.

Compound (or catadioptric) telescopes, which use a combination of lenses and mirrors, offer compact tubes and relatively light weight; two popular designs you'll often see are called Schmidt-Cassegrains and Maksutov-Cassegrains. Watch an animation of light passing through a compound telescope.

To help you sort through what Eric recommended, we'd need to know more about the lady in question.