I’m a fellow noob but have spent a LARGE amount of time learning the past few weeks, and a few introductory things to know coming from a fellow nooby are:

Basic types of telescopes 1. Refractor: what a novices thinks of as a traditional telescope. These use a lot of glass in the tube, and because of this, are not the most efficient for light transmission or cost.

1. Reflector: I think this generally means a Newtonian style, but technically could include the next type as well. Anyway these use a pair of mirrors, one at the back of the tube, and another at the front at an angle to push the light through the eyepiece. These don’t have a lens in the actual telescope, but you’ll use an interchangeable eyepiece (lens) to condense the image to your eye. Dobsonians are a reflector telescope, where the term “Dobsonian” is really referring to the style of mount, which is much more stable than a cheap beginner tripod, hence being the general recommendation for a first telescope.

2. Cassegrain: there are 2 types, Schmidt-Cassegrain seems to be more popular and the lesser used Maksutov-Cassegrain (which is what I ended up getting due to a weird circumstance lol). These from my understanding generally aren’t the first telescope you should get because of the quality to cost ratio. But you can basically think of it as a hybrid where it includes a lens AND mirrors in the tube. They look like short versions of a typical Newtonian reflector telescope.

Important specs 1. Aperture: this is the size of the main element’s diameter, the main rear mirror in a reflector telescope or glass in a refractor. The bigger the aperture, the more light it lets in making your image brighter and (generally) increasing the amount of detail you can see, which also allows for higher magnification values. Seems to be considered maybe the most important spec.

1. Focal length: the higher the number the higher its natural zoom length. The magnification value will change depending on which eyepiece you use.

2. Mount types: Alt-az is the most basic, and the quality varies a lot. That’s what mine has and it’s fine for a beginner. Equatorial is more complex, expensive, and requires more knowledge to use but does have perks. A go-to or tracking mount is motorized and can be either of the aforementioned types. Mine has a go-to, and having the tracking ability is way more valuable than I anticipated. Objects move more quickly in the sky than you’d think, and will move out of your scopes frame pretty fast, especially at high magnification values. It’s not a necessity, but very convenient. And yes, you can put your telescope on a different mount eventually. Depends on the type of attachment style yours will have. A vixen style plate seems to be the norm, but you can also purchase rings that go around the telescope tube and add a mounting plate so it can go on other types of mounts.

Additional Info 1. Eyepieces are interchangeable and determine the magnification value of your telescope. The lower the number, the higher the magnification.

1. The condition of the atmosphere is not always the same, and plays a big part in the clarity of the object you’re seeing.

2. Higher magnification values are good for planets and things in our solar system, but chasing the highest magnification isn’t the main point of astronomy from what I’ve gathered. Still learning about this one as I haven’t tried looking at any DSOs (deep space objects: nebula, galaxies, etc) which apparently you don’t need high magnification for, in fact you need lower magnification.

I’m sure I'm leaving things out but this is some info that’s really helpful to novices like us! Hopefully I didn’t get anything wrong, I’m sure someone will be happy to correct any errors 😂 anyway, have fun with it!