Every year it comes earlier and earlier, and like many of you I think things have gotten a little crazy. Let me say from the get-go … Remember the real reason for the season.

The best gifts don’t just come from brick and mortar stores or dot coms. They come from the heart.

Part of that is getting a gift that really means something to that special someone and putting some time into making the right choice. This is especially true when it comes to buying a telescope or something else that helps someone continue their love affair with the heavens.

In most cases I think the best thing to do is buy from one of the major telescope brands. My favorite brands are Orion and Celestron. They offer many choices and many different price ranges. If you’re new to buying a telescope all of the possibilities can make your head spin. Both of these brands have information on their websites that will help you make the right choice, but I also want to give all the help I can.

There are two basic kinds of visual scopes out there; refractors and reflectors. They both have advantages and disadvantages.

Refractors are what most people think of when it comes to telescopes. The light from whatever you’re viewing comes in one end of the telescope through what’s called an objective lens and you view from the other end through the eyepiece.

The most important thing any telescope can do for you is gather light. The more light you can bring in, the better and clearer you’ll see things. The magnification or power definitely takes a back seat to the light gathering ability.

In the case of refractor telescopes, the wider the objective lens the better. Refractor telescopes are sold by the diameter of their objective lenses. You need at least a 60 mm refractor. Anything smaller is basically a toy in my book.

Reflector telescopes gather light with a concave parabolic mirror in the back of the scope that bounces the reflected image to the front of the scope where another flat mirror directs the image to an eyepiece on the side of the scope.

The wider the mirror, the more light you can gather. All reflector telescopes are sold by the diameter of the mirrors in inches. You really need at least an 8-inch reflector or larger for serious backyard stargazing, especially for teenagers through adults.

I really think you get more bang for the buck with reflector scopes, especially reflector telescopes in Dobsonian mounts, better known as Dobsonian or “Dob” scopes. One disadvantage with reflector telescopes is that, in general, they’re bigger and bulkier than refractors, but the views you can get with them are so wonderful.

Now, for some specific recommendations. If your star watcher is a young person just getting into the stars you want to be sure you buy smart. You don’t want to spend a whole bunch of money on a scope if stargazing is just a passing fancy. At the same time, you don’t want to buy so cheap that the poor quality of the telescope discourages a budding amateur astronomer.

In that vein I highly recommend the Celestron “Firstscope” telescope. It’s a miniature 76 mm reflector that’s permanently attached to its mount. The whole unit can easily fit on a tabletop. It’s great for the moon, brighter planets and brighter stellar objects such as the Pleiades star cluster.

For youths in their teens, or even adults, I really like the Orion SkyQuest XT8 Classic Dobsonian Telescope. It’s a great Newtonian reflector telescope with an easy to use Dobsonian mount.

With an 8-inch diameter mirror you’ll get really nice views of the moon, planets, nebula, galaxies, and more. The views you get are crisp and clear. I know many people who have these and love them.

My only complaint is that they’re tough on adult backs because you have to bend over quite a bit to look through the eyepiece. That’s an easy fix though. Just find a sturdy box or something to raise the base of the scope a little higher … or just sit in a chair for long looks. You can order it for less than $400.

A step up from the Orion XT Classic Dobsonian is the Orion brand SkyQuest XT8i IntelliScope for $700. It’s also an 8-inch Dobsonian scope that comes with a computerized celestial object locator that is such a great help.

Now if you really want to make an investment for a serious stargazer, look into a larger aperture reflector telescope. For several thousand dollars you can pick up reflector telescopes with apertures from 14 to 20 to over 30 inches in diameter. Good luck getting those under a Christmas tree!

Many large and small refractor and reflector telescopes have as an option a “go to” motor set up that actually turns the telescope to whatever celestial object you punch up on the computer. Once it finds your target it will track it across the sky so whatever you’re viewing stays in your eyepiece. As nice as that sounds, it can double the price of a telescope.

Another kind of telescope that’s more or less a hybrid between a refractor and reflector is a Cassegrain telescope. They’re more expensive because they’re a little more portable and generally have more bells and whistles.

They’re also great if you want to take celestial photos. They’ll definitely be more expensive than reflector telescopes per inch of aperture. I would recommend a CPC 1100 GPS scope that locates and tracks stars using GPS. It runs around $3,000. I own one and absolutely love it for astrophotography.

Celestial photography done right will certainly cost you with the cameras and accessories, but it can be so rewarding. I do business with Starizona in Tucson, Ariz. Dean Koenig, the owner, is a genius. One of his creations is his “Hyperstar” lens that has absolutely revolutionized astrophotography.

Happy celestial shopping!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul and is author of the book, “Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at www.adventurepublications.net.