[masraum]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Will your MIL be able to leave it in place once it is setup? Can she drag it in and out and set it up herself? If not then maybe a good set of astro binos on a tripod will suffice.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008Y0VN/ref=as_at/?imprToken=.j-3fd9hujiTOYb.OgSsYA&slotNum=19&ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00008Y0VN&linkCode=w61&tag=optdenbinobing-20

This is a fantastic suggestion (I didn't check the link about the specific gear). A lot of folks find that a comfortable chair, a nice pair of binoculars, and a nice mount for them is very pleasurable. You won't get the "Wow" view that you do with a telescope, but the whole thing is much more casual, much easier to run outside for 10 mins or 30 mins or 2 hours without hassling with a bunch of setup and tear-down.

Also, even though you aren't likely to get as much magnification (which is a whole new discussion), because you are looking with both eyes, they say that having both eyes in play is like putting a turbo on a car, you're supposed to multiply what you can see by something like 1.4x. I don't remember the explanation exactly, but I think the deal is that the brain is receiving twice as strong an image of the same thing which means it's got more to work with. I have used several different binoculars and a couple of different scopes (4" refractor on a photo tripod and 8" Dobsonian). Being able to increase the magnification up to say 300x can give you some Wow factor at times, but you can't always do that due to weather conditions, and when you do go up to 300x or even 200x, it creates other issues (what you're looking at moves out of frame very quickly unless you've got a tracking mount). But, one of the most pleasant and fun nights that I've had looking at the stars was me sitting in a lawn chair with a really cheap pair of 10x50 binoculars.