I'm a newb to astronomy and I can tell you the best advice I got was to 1st buy a pair of half decent binoculars. They are much cheaper then a telescope and handier and you'll be surprised with what you can see through them!
$119 would get you a 7x50 or a 10x50 pair from
http://www.aoe.com.au/binoculars.html
I ended up buying a 8x56 pair that I found on special. wether you prefer 7 or 10 magnification is up to you but don't just decide based on thinking more magnification is better! You will still see the SAME objects, you will just see fewer of them at once in higher magnification, and higher mag is harder to hold steady for as long too. The best idea is to try to look through a pair of each before you decide, but that's easier said then done for some people, I didn't get a chance to do this myself.
With my 8 mag binocs, i can literally JUST fit the southern cross into their field of vision.
Binocs are a great 1st purchase! You can learn a LOT about the sky with them and see some pretty amazing things, this then will be the best way to show you HOW MUCH pursuing the hobby will be worth to you. You may decide that the 114mm telescope is enough, or you may decide that you want something a bit more! (Like me
)
But whatever you choose, even if you chose NOT to buy a telescope at all, you will STILL have a pair of really useful binoculars!
I, and most people would NOT be without their binoculars for an observing session, they make locating things so much easier, and a lot of things that just don't fit into the field of view of a telescope just look great through binoculars. You also have no chance of tracking high flying planes and satellites with a telescope, but they are a piece of cake with binoculars. I almost always start an observing session just having a scan around the sky with my binocs while my eyes dark adapt.