Telescopes for Home Use?

PDubNYC asks: "Just thought this was a good place to ask about telescopes. My father is turning 70 shortly, and I thought a telescope would be a good gift as he was an air force navigator back in the day, and loves viewing nature's beauty (bird watching, safaris etc...). So, any ideas what to look for in a home telescope, from $500-$1000 (split by 6 kids) that would enable him to punch in coordinates and have the motor turn, give a great view of nearby celestial bodies (maybe Saturn's rings), and it'd be great to hook up to a laptop (a Mac would be even better, but far from necessary). Any advice would be great." PDubNYC is also on a budget, so please refrain from suggesting the ultra expensive $1500 scopes.

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Re:Sig

[dmanny]

Notice that the signature now has a comma. (Now as in while I am posting -- it could go away.) My thoughts on this are in my current signature that I have been using for about a week....