How to look for a good telescope.?

[Mike]

Actually, for $300 (USD) you are on the low end of good telescopes but you *are* starting to see a few decent telescopes. (Not the toys and junk-scopes that get passed off far too much)

I would give you two strong options.

(1) if the $300 is pretty solid top limit, and you can't scrounge up some spare funds on the side somehow (grandparents, lawn-mowing, birthday money saved aside), then I would suggest you look at the Orion XT4.5 (see source.) Its about $230 USD (you might research and find it a bit less).
Its large enough to give you decent views of the planets, the bright stars, some of the very nice binary stars, and quite a few of the brighter galaxies. Its small enough that it won't take up too much space in the house, and light enough that anyone can carry it around easily. You can even put it in the backseat of a car if you go on a trip camping or similar.
Use a bit of the extra money you *might* be able to finagle from your folks for (1) a decent pair of binoculars, (2) a subscription to Astronomy or Sky & Telescope magazine, (3) a membership with a local astronomy club.

(2) If you can squeeze just a bit more out of the budget (or can wait for a couple of the extras I mentioned above) then about the best you can find for the money you are considering is the Orion XT6 (see source) About $280 (possibly a bit less if you search a bit) not counting shipping and so on. No question - this is a very good starter telescope. If you have a pair of binoculars at your house already, and can use the local library for reading astronomy magaizines, then you may be set for several months, perhaps several years of good astronomical observing.