I'm just about to start.

I'm all in favour of getting binoculars, I remember many years ago when I asked similar questions and got the binoculars answer, but I felt I still wanted a telescope, not binoculars.

If you are dead set on getting a telescope, can you give us a ball park figure of how much you want to spend, that makes it much easier for people here to direct you to a particular telescope type.
BUT, do not be fooled by hubble space telescope images of Jupiter and the Andromeda galaxy, do some research on the web in terms of the view that should be expected through a scope.

I remember showing a budding club member here in Limerick a view of the orion nebula through the 12" scope and they were totally unimpressed and asked "is that it, where's all the colour??", while someone else who had a small scope for years was blown away by the view.