Like, most amateurs and professionals would tell you, you should begin your hobby by getting your hands on a cheap and cheerful planisphere and a pair of decent binoculars. As sensible and good this advise is, I was stubborn and wanted to skip ahead to imaging. Although I don't regret the course I took I may have missed out a little bit on the simpler pleasures of astronomy.
I still haven't bought a planisphere, but for good reason. There are some fantastic apps out there for android and iOS, and since I already had the phone how could I say no to a free download? That's for another post though.
As for binoculars, I've finally got a pair in the form of some Bresser 20x60 Saturns.
They are second hand and did require some collimation. A lot of people will say they collimating binoculars should be left up to proffessional optics dealers/repair shops but it actually was quite simple and, in my case didn't even require the use of a bench. I found this great write up on Cloudy Nights forum which explained the proccess very well.
I'm now looking forward to some 'zero setup time' observing and something to occupy myself when my imaging scope is doing it's thing.
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