Virtually every amateur astronomer I've met has a pair of binos. They also help to teach you your way around the sky. Their are many quality binos on the market today, with a wide price range. I've heard a lot of good things about the Celestron Ultimas, Nikons, and Fujinons. There are 3 basic types of mounts, Dobsonian, Equatorial, and Alt-Az.
Dobsonian mounts are highly portable, light, and easy to use.
They are simple point and shoot mountings. No alignments are necessary which makes them very appealing for beginners. The advantages of this type of mounting are it's portability, stability, and ease of use. The disadvantages of this type of mount is that it makes higher power viewing slightly more difficult as it always requires movement on both axis. While it takes some getting used to, high power viewing on a quality Dobsonian mount is not as difficult as many folks think.