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how much would one expect to spend on a decent telescope? or can one get a decent scope for around $500?
and what type of details could one expect to see using such a telescope? i mean i would assume youd get some pretty good detail of the moon?, but what about say mars and other planets? im not expecting to see surface details, but in general.
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This page from
Meade should answer your questions about what you can expect to see. For your money, I don't think you can go too wrong with one of these Meade starter scopes, which are 3" refractors or 4-4.5" reflectors. There is quite a bit you should understand and consider before you purchase, so I suggest reading the appropriate sections on selecting a telescope on
Sky and Telescope and also the information on
Astronomics' website. These should tell you all you need to know, so I don't need to elaborate much here, but you can come back with any questions.
Besides planets, you will be able to explore other deep sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae, but your results will depend heavily on how dark the skies are in your area. You will almost certainly want a scope with motor drives which faciliate keeping the image centered in the eyepiece, otherwise they will drift away in a matter of seconds due to the rotation of the earth. You also will almost certainly want a scope with a computer controller such as Meade's Autostar system which greatly facilitates finding objects, since these have become standard equipment even on inexpensive scopes.