I think a good book will solve your problem.'NightWatch' by Terence Dickinson is often recommemded for beginners in astronomy.
One thing I would ask you to do is not to go for a telescope immediately. If you are unfamiliar with the sky, pointing the telescope at a particular star or galaxy will be a daunting task. Try to learn the constellations out there and the brightest stars. Your eyes would give you the widest view of the sky, then you can proceed to binoculars which will help you to find out star clusters, a few nebulae and galaxies. If you can
find your way through the skies, then you can decide upon your telescope. By that time, your taste might have changed i.e you may interested in lunar and planetary viewing than deep sky or vice-versa.
A few websites that gives good introduction to astronomy...
www.astronomy.com
www.skyandtelescope.com
www.astronomy-daily.com[/URL]
Hope this helps[/QUOTE]Excellent advice! Don't buy a telescope yet. Study the basics a bit, so that you understand the terms like magnitude, declination, angular separation, etc, then read some introductory articles to see where your interests might lie, at least to start (you [I]will[/I] get side-tracked!)
Next, buy a nice set of charts (Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000.0 is a good one) - that should be your first real purchase. Learn to navigate and locate things with your charts and your eyes, then view them with binoculars. 7x50's are common, can be found in pawn shops, etc. (if you don't have some already) and they are fine for astronomy - I always have a pair with me when I am out observing, even though I have a telescope and a large-aperture finder. Stay away from binoculars with small objective (front) lenses, and stay away from binoculars with zoom features or very high powers, etc. Keep them simple. In this case, the 7 means "7 power" and the 50 means the objective lenses are 50 mm in diameter.
When you have learned your way around the sky, [I]then[/I] decide on what type of telescope you will want. You need to consider not only the type of objects that you are most interested in viewing, but also price, portability, storage arrangements, etc. People here will be glad to help you make a good choice when you're ready.
Welcome to astronomy!