[Rich_]

Don't be in too much of a rush to buy a high powered telescope Tufftie. some of the nebulae & galaxies such as the Andromeda etc can be seen with a pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars. The photos you see in books etc of Jupiter in full colour with it's red spot & the multi coloured rings of Saturn have mostly been taken through observatory telescopes using long exposures & suffisticated equipment allowing reproduction of the colours. This is not necessarily what you'll see through a modestly priced telescope.

If you know some constellations like the plough, they can be used as a signpost to navigate your way round the sky if you have a star chart. The internet makes things much easier now to find things of interest & to tell you the positions of the planets month by month.& any comets to look out for, or approaching meteor showers.