What type of telescope is good for the city

I live on the 21st floor of a condo building in vancouver and we have a fabulous view of the mountains, ocean, and city. i would like to purchase a telescope for viewing things like boats in the harbour, ski hills on the mountains, and of course the sky. what would be some good things to look for in a versatile telescope like this and maybe some suggestions on actual models on an entry level budget?

The same telescope usually isn't satisfactory for both kinds of viewing. Viewing terrestrial objects is best with a low magnification, wide field instrument, such as binoculars or a spotting scope. The things that most people want to look at in the sky, the Moon and planets, requires a telescope with a large aperture (diameter of main lens or mirror) and high magnification. A telescope useful for astronomy will have too small a field of view and too much magnification (affected by air turbulence close to the ground) for terrestrial viewing.

I've tried using various astronomical telescopes for terrestrial viewing, and they have all been disappointing. I do most of my nature watching with 10x50 binoculars, which are also useful for wide-field astronomy. My recommendation for astronomical viewing is a telescope with at least 150mm aperture, usually a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, though a 200mm or 250mm telescope would be better. Astronomical observing in the city is challenged by severe light pollution. This can be partly solved by large aperture, but only really solved by getting out of the city and observing from a dark rural location.

Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner's telescopes:
http://www.gaherty.ca/tme/TME0702_Buying…
http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html
http://observers.org/beginner/j.r.f.begi…

For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington's Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley).

You'll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these: