[Cube Inmate]

A few points on telescopes:

The views in telescopes are nothing like you see in pictures! Almost everything is either faint, fuzzy, or roiling in a turbulent atmosphere. Get someone to show you the views of a few of the "famous" sights through a high-quality telescope, and then you'll know what you're signing up for.

In my experience, the mount is far more important than the 'scope. A shaky mount like those Celestrons above will absolutely frustrate the enthusiasm out of any observer. I started with a 4" reflector on a similar mount, and it almost never got used because the view was ruined every time I touched the thing to adjust it.

Cheap 'scopes come with smaller-diameter eyepieces (< 1"). Better 'scopes are designed for 1.25" eyepieces. Really fancy beasts apparently handle 2" eyepieces, although I've never seen one. The smaller ones are really not used by anyone serious, so they're often poor quality. If a 'scope you're looking at is designed for them...keep looking. The 4 mm eyepiece with those Celestrons is an absolute piece of garbage, and is only included so they can advertise "400x manification" or whatever.

On that note, magnification isn't everything...or really much of anything. Any department-store telescope advertising "400x magnification!" is selling you crap. I rarely use anything beyond 150x except on the steadiest of nights...and then only up to 250x.

And lasty, if you're still interested in getting a telescope after all this, remember that it's really "the hunt" that's the most satisfying. When I find a faint, almost invisible galaxy, it might not be very impressive visually but knowing that I found it is really great. So don't over-value those fancy "go-to" telescopes...they take away a lot of the fun, IMO.

And (really lastly) always keep an observing log...I don't get out much, but when I look at all the observing I've done over the last 15 years, it really brings back some good memories.