Article on buying your first telescope .
http://physics.weber.edu/planet/telescope.html
This is a superb free bit of software ,
http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.