Corvus

The oldest instrument here and the one we would keep if we could keep only one. A three-degree field at 130 mm is the right tool for a sky where the Large Magellanic Cloud is naked-eye obvious and rewards magnification without cropping.

It is also the telescope we put beginners on. A refractor gives a bright, contrasty, right-way-up-enough image with no diffraction spikes and no collimation anxiety, and the first thing someone sees through a telescope should not be a disappointment.