A small, short focus or "fast" Newtonian is a good telescope to start with. I have seen the older of my generation go back to those when decreased mobility becomes a problem. These were the monster Dobsonian guys with the apertures over 20" and the larger of these usually came in a trailer. I looked through apertures to 42" at these star party events and these, though simplified, can be like major construction when these are set up. "Nosebleed" ladders to the eyepiece.
I started my astronomy after John Glenn went into orbit in 1962. The moon and sky maps became available through various advertisement promotions due to the start of the space race. No telescope, but I started with identifying constellations and star names. I get these cheap 2 lens, green window glass telescopes in a hanging plastic bag from the drugstores for $.75 and tried to look at lunar craters. It is hard for a kid to hold something steady, especially with the Moon directly overhead. Lying on the ground with the tiny telescope's wee tripod on a cardboard box was the method then.
I got my first "real" telescope when my mom got me a red "Monkey Wards" 3" Newtonian on a cheap ball-and-socket mount for Christmas. I used the Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia my mom got through a grocery chain promotion to find the selected objects not on those constellation maps such as M-27, the Dumbbell Nebula and M-57, the Ring Nebula visible through that telescope. My brief, 1 1/2 year membership in the Boy Scouts offered no astronomy merit badge with the company I was in. My first astrophotos were taken with a box camera I got at a thrift store. These were the 30 second star trails using Kodak Tri-X film developed in my own darkroom. I had to hold down the "B" shutter on that camera to get these exposures. The camera was propped on a cardboard box and I had to hold still during each exposure.
I got only one of those pictures that survived the travails of time. That picture has an unique time stamp on it. The time stamp was Jupiter. I was able to find the date and time the picture was taken by the position of Jupiter in the image and the position of the constellation of Scorpius with a ground reference. April 6, 1971 at 2:57 am. It took me less than 5 minutes to find the time using one of the planetarium software that is available.
Joelene
