I am new to astronomy, and am going to buy a telescope. Do you have any recommendations?

Congratulations on entering the wonderful world of amateur astronomy! A
4.5 inch reflector is an excellent starter telescope, but depending on the
level of experience of the stargazer, a good pair of binoculars may be
even better, since they are easier to point.

It is probably true that Meade or Celestron scopes tend to have slightly
better optics than other brands like Orion or Coulter. However, the
difference is almost always indetectable to all but the most seasoned
observer. Particularly if the telescope will be used for viewing only (no
astrophotography), then the demands on the optics are much lower.

Eyepieces are an important part of your new observatory. My best advice
is that higher magnification is not necessarily better! The higher the
magnification, the smaller the field of view and the fainter the objects
will appear. If you have only one eyepiece, it should be one that gives
you a nice, wide field (say, 1 degree or more) so you can easily see star
clusters, nebulae and galaxies!

Only if you have one or more eyepieces already should you go for
high-magnification oculars. Your observing strategy with these should be
to center the object with your wide-field eyepiece, and then switch to the
high-magnification eyepiece to "zoom-in". This is much easier than trying
to find the object in the first place with the high-power eyepiece.

Eyepieces are labeled with a focal length, not a magnification power,
because the magnification depends on the focal length of the telescope.
Most eyepieces are labeled with the focal length in millimeters (mm), so
it's a good idea to know the focal length of your telescope in mm when you
are shopping for eyepieces. To compute the magnification of an eyepiece,
use the following formula:

Mag = F(t) / F(ep)

Mag: magnification
F(t): focal length of telescope
F(ep): focal length of eyepiece

For most telescopes, a good wide field eyepiece will lie in the range
20-32 mm; an intermediate eyepiece will be 12-18 mm; and the high power
eyepiece will be 6-12 mm.

Hope this helps, and thanks for your question!

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