[masraum]

Originally Posted by Cajundaddy

I like medium size binos (8x42) hand held in a lounge chair under dark skies a lot. You can just relax and sweep the milky way in comfort. Any larger and they really need a parallelogram mount to put you in a comfortable viewing position. Trying to use them on a standard tripod is really awkward when looking up unless they have right angle eyepieces.

Definitely. 8x42 is about max for easy of use. 10x is pushing it, and 10x50 is going to have a fair amount of movement. But, under nice dark skies, the 8x42 will be nice.

Originally Posted by Eric Coffey

Unless you are really into it, I see telescopes as being in the same category as exercise equipment. That is, most think they will use it a lot more than they actually do, and the novelty soon wears off and it becomes a piece of furniture/clothes hanger. So, I'd probably find something used to start off with. There are probably plenty to choose from at Goodwill, or on Craigslist, etc.

Agreed, that's why I made the points that I made about easy of use and setup. Something small, like a small 4.5" table top scope or a pair of binoculars, while maybe not as sexy as a big scope will probably get more use.

It's a lot like picking a .22 or a 44 magnum for plinking. The .22 will probably get used a lot more for several reasons.