I believe an 8″ Orion dobsonian is within your price range. You will be able to see most of the planets, detail showing on Mars and Jupiter, and of course you will be able to see the rings of Saturn. You will be able to see a few bright galaxies, many nebulas, and many many star clusters.

Will it be worth it? Well if you are a true astronomer, yes. Just don’t expect what you see in the telescope to look like what you see in astrophotos. The human eye isn’t as sensitive as cameras and can’t pick up most of the detail in galaxies or most of the color in nebulas.

Last time I used a small 60mm refractor and 6″ reflector I recall being able to easily see the rings of saturn [if they are not edge on], the belts and red spot on Jupiter, and thats about it. You will need a larger instrument to see any real detail on Mars. Venus is quite boring, as is Mercury, and the others will be out of your reach.

All will be small dots. Some will show no features (Uranus, Neptune). But it’s still interesting to see them.

Only you can decide if it’s worth it. Perhaps you should hook up with some local astronomers and see what you can see through their telescopes?

You should be able to see all of the planets except Pluto, assuming conditions at your observing site are reasonable. Uranus and Neptune will be a little more difficult than the others, which are really very easy to see. Mercury can be dicey due to its proximity to the Sun. Depending on the type of scope you acquire, you should be able to see four moons of Jupiter as well as bands of storms on its surface, the rings of Saturn, and beautiful details on the Moon. In addition, you should be able to see brilliantly colored double stars, gorgeous star clusters, faint nebulae, and galaxies as far away as 50 million light years or so.

Is it worth it? My answer is a qualified “yes.” Qualified because if you take a wrong turn you can easily be frustrated by lousy equipment to the extent that you will abandon the hobby. Happens all the time, especially when folks buy a cheap scope from a department store that advertises based on magnification. There are plenty of good scopes available - and not terribly expensive, but I would HIGHLY recommend that you be patient and take the following steps:

1. Find a local astronomy club on line. Find out when they are holding observing sessions and go to a few. You will receive a warm welcome and some sound advice. Take the opportunity to look through the various scopes that are set up at the session. They are all quite different. See what each one does, and also what you can expect to see when looking through them.

2. Learn the night sky. Get a good set of charts (the book Nightwatch by Dickinson is a terrific book with user-friendly charts). Use binoculars while you are weighing your scope options. I used binoculars for many years - it is amazing what you can see using them.

3. When you know what kind of scope you want and why, then go ahead and buy it. You will not regret it. I tend to favor aperture and optics over computer goto features, but that’s just my opinion. An 8 inch Dobsonian without the computer goto device is an excellent choice that will allow you to see hundreds of objects.

Most important, take your time. There’s no hurry. Understand what scope you want before you buy. Buy from a telescope dealer or from one of the on line sources (oriontelescopes.com, meade.com, celestron.com) and not from a department store or Ebay.

Good luck and Clear skies to you!

With this you will be able to see all the planets, and get detailed views of Jupiter with its four bright moons and Saturn with its rings and several of its moons. It will also give you incredibly detailed views of the Moon and show you hundreds of deep sky objects: star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies.