What makes you look up?
Photo credits
These thumbnails are built from real photographs, scaled and darkened by the same arithmetic as the large view.
- The Pleiades: Wikimedia Commons, Plejades (M45).jpg, CC0
- The Moon: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio / LRO, public domain
- The Orion Nebula: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (heic0601a), CC BY 4.0
- The Andromeda Galaxy: Adam Evans, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Albireo: 阿爾特斯, Wikimedia Commons (Albireo_01.jpg), CC BY-SA 3.0
- The Double Cluster: Giuseppe Donatiello, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Mars: ESA/MPS, Rosetta OSIRIS team, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
- The Hercules Cluster: Wikimedia Commons, Messier_13.jpg, CC BY-SA
- The Ring Nebula: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (heic1310a), CC BY 4.0
- The Dumbbell Nebula: Wikimedia Commons, M27 Dumbbell Nebula, CC BY-SA
- The Whirlpool Galaxy: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith, Hubble Heritage (heic0506a), CC BY 4.0
Your sky
Saturn does not care about light pollution. You need ~50 mm to recognise it; ~100 mm for detail. A city balcony is perfectly fine.
You need, at minimum
BinocularsRefractorDobsonianCatadioptricImagingSolar
53 mm10×50 binocularsBinoculars Recognisable · 0.9 kg€7076 mm76 mm tabletop NewtonianDobsonian Recognisable · 2 kg€80140 mm130 mm tabletop DobsonianDobsonian Detailed · 6 kg€15080 mm70–90 mm refractor on an alt-az mountRefractor Recognisable · 5 kg€15080 mm70–90 mm refractor on a manual equatorial mountRefractor Recognisable · 12 kg€270122 mm114–130 mm Newtonian on a manual equatorial mountNewtonian Detailed · 10 kg€300175 mm150–200 mm DobsonianDobsonian Detailed · 20 kg€33076 mm72–80 mm ED refractorRefractor Recognisable · 5 kg€400115 mm102–127 mm Maksutov on a GoTo alt-azCatadioptric Detailed · 9 kg€45055 mmSmart telescope (30–80 mm, integrated camera)Smart Recognisable · 3 kg€450140 mm130–150 mm Newtonian on a small GoTo alt-az mountNewtonian Detailed · 9 kg€470275 mm250–300 mm DobsonianDobsonian Detailed · 40 kg€800177 mm150–200 mm Schmidt-Cassegrain on a GoTo alt-azCatadioptric Detailed · 14 kg€90081 mmEquatorial GoTo mount with a small imaging refractorImaging Recognisable · 22 kg€1,800