Check out Orion also. Look 'em up on Google. I have three Orion scopes and all are A Nr 1 first class. Orion has quality scopes from $75 to $150,000. The latter price is for a 50 inch Dobsonian BTW which is 18 feet high. The last Meade I bought (and for a high price) turned out to be a piece of crap and it was like pulling walrus teeth to get Meade to back up their warranty. So now I stick with Orion, Celestron, or Vixen.
There are three basic types of scopes and they are:
1. Refractors. This is the long tube type with a larger 'objective' lens at the front end and a smaller eyepiece or viewing lens at the rear. You see cheap versions of these in department stores and advertised up to something like 600 power. Ain't so! If you divide the diameter of the objective by the focal length of the eyepiece, that's your max useable power. A 120mm objective, close to four inches, would give you about 200 power with reasonable resolution.
2. Cassegrain scopes. Maksutov, Schmidt-Cassegrain, Cadioptric, etc. These are scopes that bend the light back and forth between lenses and mirrors and thus pack a lot more focal length into a shorter tube. I have one Orion Maksutov that is 1900 mm focal length with a front lens that is 7.25 inches in diameter. Divide that 1900 by a 10mm eyepiece and you have 190 power; 5mm and you have 380 power, about max for this scope. BTW, the absolute maximum reasonably decent resolution in terms of magnifying power ANY quality scope can provide is about 50 power per inch of objective lens (or mirror) diameter. Therefore, an eight inch scope, 400 power, six inch, 300, and so on.
3. Newtonian (or Dobsonian) reflectors. These have two mirrors, one parabolic fairly large mirror at the bottom of a tube facing up and a smaller mirror set at an angle near the open top of the tube. Dobs are optically and mechanically simple but one of the best and least expensive scopes. The Mount Palomar and most other large observatory scopes are reflectors. The light from whatever you''re viewing comes in at the open top of the tube and past the 'spider' there that is the mount for the small secondary mirror. The light impinges on the large parabolic mirror at the bottom of the tube and is concentrated and reflected back up to the secondary mirror. The secondary bends the light at a right angle and into an eyepiece and focuser mounted on the outside near the tube top.
I have a 12 inch primary mirror Orion Dob mounted in a six foot long tube and cradled in what's called a 'Go-To' mount. The tube pivots up and down and the base revolves so the scope can be pointed in any direction. This is easy to do manually. In mine, the Go-To is shorthand for a motorized and computerized system which can locate and then track objects in space once a couple of known stars are centered and the info entered into the computer.
'Dobsonian' or Dob, BTW, refers to a Mr. Dobson, a San Francisco gentleman in his middle 90s who came up with an ingenious method of mounting the scope tube of a Newtonian reflector. He used to lead (maybe he still does) a group called the 'sidewalk astronomers' in San Fran. He and the members ground their own mirrors and fabricated their Dob mounts.
Final comment. I have a current Orion catalog here on my desk as I'm typing this. It lists a table top 'Newt' reflector with Dob type base, 100 mm primary mirror (almost 4 inches) and 400 mm focal length. The price is $99.95. Something like this should give you about 200 power so nothing to sneeze at and certainly a great first scope for a child. The table tops are popular because they're smaller and easy to use from a picnic table in the yard, from the porch, etc.
Hope this helps and isn't too long winded for you.
