My father-in-laws birthday is fast approaching and my sister-in-law has had the idea of giving him a telescope as a gift to which the three "kids" and partners will contribute.

A friend of her partner has apparently e-mailed Patrick Moore and he has recommended a 'scope for just over £100. This seems a little fishy to me, both getting in touch with PM and him recommending such a cheap 'scope, if indeed he recommended one at all.

The 'scope will be living on the Island of Tiree where its going to be used for Stargazing (its very dark there) and looking at ships out at sea.

The budget I have in mind is about £300.

Ta in advance for your recommendations and witty comments.

I am selling one of these with tripod if you are interested. It also has a levelling spirit level for use in the eyepiece, an equatorial mount, and a mount for use with normal camera tripods

http://www.jacobsdigital.co.uk/index.php?target=products&product_id=8540
If not interested them my advice is to get a motorised one as it will track and find objects for you which is nice if you are a beginner and makes everything so much easier and is a great way to learn
For £100 I would recomend a set of really good binoculars I am sure everyone else will at that price.

Remember you want aperture not magnification as a general rule of thumb – higher magnifications also have a smaller visual field – tiny at massive magnification. Look at focal length and field of view.

Stargazers Lounge has some good end user reviews of scopes and some good guides as to what to look for when buying a scope.

Bump for the afternoon crowd.

Used a pair of Nikon Action 10×50 last year in the states, a revelation after only using small binocs in the past. They do a 10-22x zoom with a tripod mount in the same series which I'd reckon would be superb for the money. Not used this retailer, just came up from Google.

Nikon link