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Originally Posted by yagon
I've just been through the process that you've gone through, having bought my first telescope about two months ago, so I thought I'd share my thoughts.
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The most important advice:
1. As discussed earlier, go to a club and look through lots of scopes.
2. Buy binoculars and a star chart: start observing. It's amazing what you'll see with a cheap pair of binoculars.
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I'd like to add at this point
3. give yourself at least a year to learn how to see.
Looking through a telescope involves a lot of subtlety. Sure, most galaxies are going to look like little grey blobs in the eyepiece when you're starting out (if you can even see them at all) but sometimes the view of agalaxy in a big telescope can be breathtaking and this spurs you on to perservere with a smaller scope. And Jupiter will seem like a big bright circle with just two brown bands across it...so where do people see all those white ovals on the planet, and the bands and streamers etc - they've been patient and tried and tried again and learnt to understand what can be seen. It really helps to go observing with more experienced observers who can guide you around the sky and show you what can be seen. Do try to go a a society meeting and get some hands action with a telescope before you buy. I wont try to talk you out of a goto, they have their merits, but they, like all telescopes, have their downsides too. I think you might not like the weight/size of the 10" in regards to ease of handling when you are tired after work and sometimes a smaller telescope is better for photographic purposes, but it depends on what you want to image, I suppose.