Choosing a first telescope is a difficult task for a fledgling amateur astronomer. Frequently, newcomers pick telescopes with computerized go-to controls, only to discover after a lot of frustration — ...

When I was a teenager, new to observing the sky, I spent a year wandering across the Milky Way armed with nothing more than a pair of 7×50 binoculars. Then a miracle happened: I received a Celestron 8 ...