Sound advice from John there Damian. The only other piece of advice I can give is don't stress about collimation. I have seen beginners spend hours tweaking and stressing about slightly imperfect aligments when they would be much better off getting out and actually using their scopes. That doesn't mean being slapdash with it, just that collimation is a game of diminishing returns.
This article by Gary Seronik (
http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/169 )has a very simple explanation of why collimation is necessary.
Cheers
Malcolm