I would like to get a telescope to set up in my yard. I live in the country and on clear nights the sky is very starry so light pollution is not a big problem. Of course price is an object, but I would like recommendations for the best (in your opinion) home telescopes, regardless of price.
Will be watching with interest as my 12 year old daughter has requested a telescope for Christmas.
Both Meade and Celestron are good brands to get started with. Try looking on Craigslist, I have found some good deals there for example I picked up a Meade DS-2130 130mm. (5 1/8 inch) Newtonian Reflecter and a EXT-60 60mm. short tube refractor both with Meade’s AutoStar computer driven auto tracking mounts for less than $100 each. Avoid department store scopes with manual alt/az mounts, the mounts are not stable and the optics are junk. Try visiting a local astronomy club, most of the time they will have a private observatory and loaner scope programs plus you will get to meet local people that can point you in the right direction.
Clear Skies
Peace
LIONsob
Sky and Telescope has a good first-time buyers guide here. I strongly suggest reading it, but it boils down to this:
Anything marketed based on magnification power is crap. Aperture is king, the bigger the front end the more precious photons you’ll collect. The problem generally isn’t that things are small, it’s that they’re faint. So you generally want to get the largest scope that you can afford
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…while keeping mind that you may use a smaller scope more often than a large 60-lb light-bucket.
I would suggest a 6-8 inch Dobsonian reflector from Meade, Celestron, or Orion (I have an 8" Orion). It’ll be big enough to give you good views of deep-sky objects and still be fairly easy to transport.
If you don’t want to spend a lot of time familiarizing yourself with the sky and learning observing skills like star-hopping, a smaller scope on a computerized mount like those mentioned above will get you out under the sky quickly, and many people end up using smaller scopes more often because of easier setup/transport.
Either way, Meade, Celestron, and Orion are all good brands for a first scope, Meade and Celestron especially if you go the computerized mount route.
Ditto wheresmymind.
To elaborate, though, you can get a bigger scope with nicer optical quality for the money if you buy a Newtonian, which has a big mirror in back and a small angled one near the front. The eyepiece is near the front end, at right angles to the body of the scope. Newtonians that are mounted on simple mounts that go side to side and up and down (an altazimuth mount) are often called Dobsonian, and would represent the best optical bargain.
However, they are longer, for a given optical diameter, than another type you might consider, the Schmidt-Cassegrain. These have the eyepiece on the rear, so you are looking toward the object when you look through them (unless you add a little right angle adapter for neck comfort). Celestron and Meade both sell these, too (it’s what Celestron got famous for). They are very nice, very convenient. It might make the difference between dragging it out to enjoy it, or not.
Third consideration - there are a few items in the sky that are not dim, especially the planets and Moon. You can use a much smaller diameter telescope on these. Though, it’s a pretty limited selection, so you probably do want to go for scope diameter.
Fourth consideration - there are a lot of electronic and computery things associated with scopes these days, but it’s probably a more rewarding hobby if you learn where things are without all that. I have no idea what it is like to have a telescope crash because of a buggy update…
There may be an astronomy club near you that holds viewing nights. Check with your local college or even high school. Go to a viewing night and try out the instruments others bring. You might even get a deal on a used one or one made by an amateur if you’re careful in your selection.
I bought a junkscope with my hard earned cash aged 14, it turned me off astronomy. 
A good suggestion but I don’t think Meade makes smaller dobs.
I may be wrong, but all add to this that Orion has Goto Dobs as well as computer guided (not controlled) Dobs.
Thanks for all the suggestions!
We like :
Lots of good buying advise and a great resource for casual observing.
Clear Skies!
One other tangent: there are some nice little telescopes in the $500 neighborhood that are just for looking at the Sun, during the day.
It’s an easy target, and you don’t lose any sleep. Seems a shame to never look at the one star that is so close you can enjoy details on it.
We built one when i was a kid. We ground the lens by using a shapes top and grinding powders. We did it by hand . We used “amateur telescope making” . I am not sure it is still around . we could see a gap between the planet and rings on Saturn with it. I remember it taking a lot of time. But with power tools, it might be easier nowadays.