Whats a good telescope to buy that wont break the bank. My 5 year old is getting into planets and such, I have always been into astronomy and (Aliens LMAO) but needed to know if I could pick up a nice tele for a good price??

Meade or Celestron. Both set the standard for telescope entheusiasts. They have some good entry level offerings. I've had a Celestron Celestar 8 for about 15 years now and it's held up like it's still new. Both Meade and Celestron are quality construction.

Looks decent enough and is a good price for a beginner telescope.

She wants to see Mars and Saturn as well as the moon, which I told her can be seen without a tele lmao, but stuff like that with a good visual of it.

snakegs

She wants to see Mars and Saturn as well as the moon, which I told her can be seen without a tele lmao, but stuff like that with a good visual of it.

The cool thing about Jupiter and Saturn is you can actually see the different moons in the orbit of the planet and make out details like bands in the planet and ring details. I always used to think it was cool that every time I viewed Jupiter, the moons were in different places and you could tell which moon is which by their brightness and current locations.
 
I've always been in to planetary viewing. I never got into nebula or star viewing much. The track of the planets and their constant changes always kept me interested. Also the moon is great to look at in detail. You begin to get used to where things are located on the moon after awhile with using a scope and even binoculars.

Here's a e-store www.telescopes.com

Best bang for buk i recon is the
Meade 12.5" dobsonian mount reflector.

http://www.meade.com/lightbridge/index.html

Correction!! they make a 16" version now. Hell yeah

How about this one in the Meade Factory Outlet store?

http://www.shopatron.com/products/productdetail/ETX-70EC+70mm+Achromatic+Refractor+with+hand+box/part_number=0705-03-01/1323.0.1.1.57212.0.0.0.0?

burning_kittins

Well you dont want the one i own than xD

Its a pain in the butt to look at what you want because the stand wobbles to much.

Ya, the stand can really kill your enjoyment of telescopes if it's a crappy stand. I really would suggest no less than a 90mm. That 70mm Meade ^^^^ while is in the right price range is really eating into the limits of the bottom end of light gathering size I'd tolerate even as a beginner. My suggestion would be to find a 90mm SCT by Meade or Celestron that can be setup on a table like this:
 
http://www.shopatron.com/products/productdetail/ETX-90AT+Factory+Refurbished/part_number=3514-03-25RE/1323.0.1.1.57212.0.0.0.0?
 
Really, if you can find it on ebay used all the better. Celestron and Meade scopes aren't shotty quality and even used they're like new unless the previous owner abused the optics. I've seen C8's go for cheap that are 20-30 years old that work good as new on ebay. A C8 SCT is entry level entheusiast hardware though. You really should get a 90mm SCT as a starter. If you camp at all a 90mm table top model telescope could just be put into your camping gear set and not be out of place for the trip. It's very portable.
 
Here is what I mean by Meade and Celestron quality. Here's my SCT C8 that is 15 years old and good as new.
 

I got a friend who custom builds mirrors/lenses for various use in film/photography. You can have one custom made for cheap there are instructions around the web. The most expensive part to get would be the lenses. You can find them cheap at photography stores or online. "Hong Kong" is the best place to get that type of stuff but shipping takes forever.

http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/tele/tele.htm

you can get the parts for next to nothing. If you want to build bigger you might end up spending a little more for the lenses used for the eyepiece.

If you want to buy. These are the best ones I know of. And perhaps you can get them alot cheaper on ebay.
http://barska.com/telescopes.html

rhussain

I got a friend who custom builds mirrors/lenses for various use in film/photography. You can have one custom made for cheap there are instructions around the web. The most expensive part to get would be the lenses. You can find them cheap at photography stores or online. "Hong Kong" is the best place to get that type of stuff but shipping takes forever. 

Interesting. I've always pondered having a custom ground anamophic projection lens made. Those type of home theater lenses are ungodly expensive though. Maybe they could be DIY made.

well is 900mm focal length good? I myself am a noob with telescopes lol. But again I dont have much to spend like I can't really go over 200 bucks, that may also be pushing it lol. I heard 15x80 binocs are good?