hi back ice!
I thinkthe idea behind saying "get some decent binos first" is to get prople to learn thier way around the sky...
one would assume that at this stage the person would already have some interest...
but I do disagree with that...
my ebay telescope cost my about $80. the mount needed constant attention and it wasnt the easiest to adjust, it came with the old 1" EP, and I had to weigh the tripod down with a house brick to help stablize things.... but for some reason i must have been lucky cause the optics were actually ok. I could see all sorts of DSOs, banding on jupiter, the cassini division and titan on saturn. I could take afocal picture thru it too which amazed me.
some of my 60mm pics:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v46/ving68/60mm/
these were taken only a week into my new hobby.... "what if i aim my camera down the lens...."
but like i said, i must have got lucky with the optics in mine.
I think it was a fine way to start
If I had just bought binos I prolly wouldnt be here now.