READER JASON DOCTOR WRITES THAT telescopes are marked way down today. Those make good presents.

UPDATE: Earlier, a reader asked me for recommendations and I couldn’t help a lot — it’s been a long time since I bought a telescope. But now reader Lowell McCormick writes:

Hi Glenn, I have a number of telescopes, belong to the Ponchartrain Astronomy Society and attend many public outreach events where we invite the public to look thru our telescopes. For prospective new telescope owners, I would suggest the Orion XT8″ Classic dob. It gives the most bang for the buck, by far. I would suggest that beginners stay away from anything on a tripod. If a child is under 12 yrs old, go for the same Orion dob in the 6″ or 4.5″ diameter. Stay away from anything on a tripod. The dob style telescopes allow you to spend most of the money on the optics which is the thing you are buying a telescope for. An 8″ can be a scope that lasts a lifetime. And the views of the Orion nebula, Andromeda galaxy, Jupiter and Saturn can be fantastic and awe inspiring thru an 8″ reflector.

The Coronado PST solar telescope at $500 is also a good buy. It works well on a camera tripod.

The larger solar scopes have come down in price by 50% in recent years and the 60mm Coronado @ $1300 is a good buy but you’ll need a $500 to $1000 mount on a tripod for it to be stable.

The Sun is getting active again and the views have been great lately. The hydogen alpha type solar scopes (above) allow views of sunspots, surface detail and spectacular prominences around the edge of the sun.

www.telescope.com has a good “telescope buyers guide” and a listing of telescopes by user level.

I have a 16″ truss dob reflector, 3″ & 4″ refractors on eq mounts and a 60mm Ha solar scope.

So there’s some advice.