Which telescope do you actually need?

Tell us what you want to look at, where you will look at it from, and what you can spend. Those three answers settle most of it, because the honest recommendation on this shelf is usually the largest aperture you will carry outside on a Tuesday night rather than the cleverest instrument in the catalogue.

The recommendation is built from the telescope price index: 5 brands with prices verified against their own pages, aperture beside every figure.