A friend of mine had, as a child, a 6" newtonian reflector with a manual (not motorized) equatorial mount. It provided enough detail that we could recognize nebulae that we'd seen photos of, and brought in enough light that you could use it successfully in the city. It was easy to move outdoors when he wanted to use it. The mount doesn't matter a bit if you're going to use your own eyes to look at stars. It matters a lot if you want to hook up a camera, because an equitorial mount tracks the stars' motion with a single degree of freedom so you can make long exposures. In those bygone days of film that wasn't an issue for kids, but in these digital days, it might be. It was pretty fun for a summer, but after a couple of years he had moved on.