Santa needs help choosing a telescope!

[jmkopf]

Hello,

My five year old daughter asked Santa for a telescope this year.  My husband and I know nothing about telescopes but are excited to explore with her.  She has in mind what my basic research shows as a refractor telescope ("a long skinny one on a stand with long legs").  My husband would like to purchase something that our family can use as all of our kids grow up, but we also want something simple enough that when she sees it on Christmas, she'll be able to see something right away.  Although the primary interest is astronomy, I could also imagine her wanting to use it for bird watching or "spying."  I think our budget is under $300, although we would probably prefer something in the $100-200 range.  Any help you could give us would be amazing!  Thank you!

[cantab]

At 5, your daughter might be too young to make good use of any telescope. But I understand the desire. Something like this might be OK

http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/Great-Telescopes-Under-200/Orion-GoScope-80mm-Refractor-Telescope-and-Tripod-Bundle/pc/-1/c/1/sc/25/p/100316.uts

Can be used either on the tripod or set on a table. They also sell the scope without the tripod. The view will be the right way up, but mirrored, or you can buy a correct-image diagonal, so it will be suitable for terrestrial viewing as well as astronomy. With a short focal length it will give nice low power views, rewarding random scanning around with nice starfields.

Orion's Funscope or the larger Skyscanner 100 might also do well, but the image will be upside-down, so not much good for terrestrial use.

[baggywrinkle]

Seasons Greetings!

http://skywatcher.com/product.php?cat=3&id=36

For simplicity the Skywatchers are good..and would be well within the budget.

[Alien 13]

+1 for the skywatcher mercury.

With any small child it is very important to supervise them closely especially during the day a wild movement of the telescope could easily bring the sun into view which WILL cause permanent eye damage, the mercury package has i think slow motion controls and also a method of locking each axis so is somewhat safer in this respect.