[deodar]

A good pair of binoculars will be sufficient. You didn't need a ton of light gathering capability for casual planet viewing like this.

Telescopes are a bit of a rabbit hole. Many cheap mass market telescopes are also known as hobby killers. A 6" dobsonian (reflector) is a good starting point for deep space objects like nebulae and star clusters. For planetary viewing Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes are great.

However, learning to use a telescope requires time and patience. Taking it to the field for an event like this for the first time may be frustrating as you will be spending most of the time figuring out how to collimate and align it.

I certainly don't mean to discourage you from getting one though.

A good pair of binoculars is much easier to use. They require no collimation out of the box and show an upright image that makes it much easier to navigate the sky, at the cost of reduced magnification and light gathering capability. You will be surprised how many celestial objects even 10x magnification reveals that are invisible to the naked eye.

Happy planet gazing!

[ryandrake]

My brother started at "I'll just buy one telescope" and last I checked has just finished constructing a powered observatory on some remote land where the telescope and rooftop motors can be operated entirely remotely through cell connectivity. This is a worse hobby for your wallet than having a boat.

[Loughla]

That's a hilarious escalation.

[dylan604]

That’s pretty normal tack. It’s just most people can’t get there vs not wanting to. A not insignificant amount of money is required to get to that point. It costs nothing to have the desire though

[madphilosopher]

Someone else did this, then built 20 more next to it. Now it's a business where they sell telescope time to researchers and hobbyists. I imagine it's profitable for them.

[dylan604]

Binoculars are a bit misleading though as most people tire of trying to keep hold of them and track steadily. If you’re going to the level of getting some sort of mount/tripod for the binocs, you might as well step up to a telescope with GoTo features with tracking.

[minnowguy]

There are devices that allow you to connect your binoculars to standard camera tripods.

[tzs]

Where does one buy good telescopes nowadays?

For most of the last 50 years I would have said order from Orion Telescopes, but they abruptly disappeared last July.

[blueelephanttea]

High Point Scientific is a great option. They sell tons of options and have great service.

For example, this is an extremely commonly recommended for serious beginners that is sold by them: https://www.highpointscientific.com/apertura-ad8-8-inch-dobs...