Hi from Essex, Taking the plunge finally, so your help is appreciated greatly NEEDED :)

[bosun21]

Hi 👋 and welcome to SGL. I would definitely point you to the 8” Dobsonian (200mm) The Skywatcher 8” Dobsonian are in stock at the moment at First Light Optics (FLO) and meets your budget of being under £400. I would advise against observing out your window as your garden is much more suitable. Good luck in your endeavors 

[M40]

Hello ScifiMan1966 and welcome to the site 👍 just my 2p, the 200P Dob is a great telescope but it is big. The 200 relates more or less to the diameter of the telescope tube so if you look at a picture of the telescope you can get an idea of the size of the device, so storage is important as well as portability. A couple of pointers for you, there is a topic within the " Beginners - getting started with observing" menu called what can I expect to see. Well worth a read. Also at the top of the page you will find a menu called resources - astronomy tools. Select FOV (Field of View), insert a few different telescopes and eyepieces then under visual mode select the moon and it will give you an idea of the size of the object you would like to observe. 

My thoughts are that if you are going to move the telescope between bedroom and garden, maybe a traditional type of reflector telescope like the skywatcher startravel 120 (AZ3) would work better for you. All the best.

[Bioboybill]

Hi and welcome  to SGL. I can reiterate what a lot of others have already said and recommend a Dob as the best bang for buck, with the 8 inch being just about right. Above that size they start to get a lot bigger, heavier and more expensive. If you are pushed for space then maybe 6 inch Dob would be better.

However, I would also suggest you don't discount humble binoculars. You can certainly see quite a few things with a decent pair of 10 x 50 binoculars, particularly on a tripod with a pistol grip head. I was able to see Jupiter and it's 4 moons recently with mine, and you could kit yourself out with those for around £200 and no need for further eyepieces. Look on the Binoculars section on here and on Steve Tonkin's excellent Binocular Sky site for recommendations. That way you could learn the night sky with binoculars then progress on to a telescope at a later date without jumping in at the  deep end.

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi there and welcome. 

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂