With an ALT-AZ mount you will have a much better time pointing your telescope at locations in the night sky. Most ALT-AZ mounts will require the telescope to be level and then point due north if they have motors. These style of telescope mounts can be set up quickly, do not require dark skies to get ready and are very easy to point at objects in the night sky. Up-Down (altitude) and Left-Right (azimuth). An Alt-AZ has a flat base and requires that the telescope move in two directions to track an object in the sky. This is one of the main reasons EQ's are used in astrophotography. The benefit is that once you get an EQ set up, to track an object you only need to move in one direction to counter the earth's rotation. They are hard to set up, may need dark skies to find Polaris, are difficult to use to find objects manually, and as a visual telescope are not the first choice a beginner should use. EQ mounts need to be aligned with the north pole to work. EQ, Equatorial and ALT-AZ or Altitude/Azimuth. There are two main types of mounts for telescopes. Below, I am going to talk you out of this purchase, and give you my suggestions instead. My recommendations are based on price, usability, value, and that hard to qualify "will I use this in 3 months" metric. I am an amature astronomer that runs a public outreach program, a life long amatuer astronomer and all around love r of space and astronomy for over 40 years. It gets put on multiple lists of "good first telescopes" all over the internet for a space fan in your family. At first glance, the Orion SpaceProbe 130ST Telescope is a great telescope.
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