For beginners - Meade 114EQ-AR 114mm Telescope 4.5" Equatorial Reflector with Red Dot Finder Scope, Full-Size Tripod, 2 Eyepieces, Meade Autostar Suite Software 04067

I recommend only if you are new to telescopes. If you are not, you won't want to bother.

This will teach you how to set up an equatorial mount, spot and track objects, and get you familiar with the general process of exploring the sky.

I'm not an expert on the technical details yet, but someone close to me who is a telescope nut wasn't impressed with the optics. The eye pieces it came with are junk.

Generally speaking, if you've never seen the rings of Saturn for yourself or the deep craters on the moon, you won't regret this purchase.

I took it camping and built it for the first time. People from other sites kept wandering over to my site. Took me about an hour and a half to set it up (I'm much faster now) and align it properly.

My first telescope was a small dob mount.

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.