I have never owned a telescope, but have always wanted one, now I finally have the time and money(kids out of the house), at least I think I have the money, what I want to see is at least the moon and planets and the space station, how much will I need to spend and what should I get

Hi

Welllllllllllllll... you're supposed to start by learning the night sky using just your eyes... the thing is, strictly speaking, you're not going to get anywhere (literally) without learning your way around the sky.

It's usually then a good idea to buy yourself a decent pair of binoculars and work your way around that way... and then, finally, to move up to a scope.

Whatever you do, *don't* buy one of those cheap scopes that make ludicrous promises of things like "1000x magnification!!"

Have a look online for telescope forums and also try the Sky & Telescope website (www.skyandtelescope.com) and of course Astronomy (www.astronomy.com) for recommendations.

I live in the UK so I'm not sure of the prices in the US, but I think you're looking at $100+ for a small starter 'scope.

Dips

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Whew!
There are so many varibles to that answer!

Here is my idea of a "dream machine".

And if I could afford it and had a place to put it I would get it.

A Meade 16" Meade ® 16" LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope

With all the xtras and goodies added in!

Here is the web page with all the info.

http://www.meade.com/catalog/lx/16_lx200gps.html

I think it starts about $16,000 base.

Hope this helps you!

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actually I would love to be able to afford that(my wife would want a new car if I spent that much) but I was hoping $1000 or less would let me do what I want to do

I aggree with Hippy Dippy that one should learn the skies first. But technology makes it pretty easy to cheat.

For $300 to $500 at your local Walmart, you can find (Proabley in front near the place to get eye glasses)
both a nice for a beginner reflector and somewhat cheaper refractor. Both feature a little computer keypad, that once set up and has it's lattitude, and logitude directions and bearings and coordenated universal time calculated is suppose to point the scope at whatever object you pick.
If you type in Mars, it will point at Mars, but you still have to focus the thing.

I can't vouch for how well it will work for I havn't tried it.