With binoculars purchased for bird-watching or enhancing the view of the game from the nosebleed section, you can also do some casual skygazing. Ordinary binocs will give excellent views of the moon and greatly improved views of Jupiter, Saturn, and comets. Check to make sure they're built well and test them by looking at something with lots of vertical lines. You want to make sure that the lines don't curve near the edges of the field and that they have a hard, sharp focus. They might just be the best way for you to begin.
Telescopes come in two basic types - refractors and reflectors.
Refractors use lenses to gather light from dim objects while reflectors use a mirror. Refractors are the long narrow tubes with the eyepiece at the back end. Reflectors are usually shorter, fatter and open at the top. In most styles of reflector, the eyepiece is placed near the top. Refractors provide good, sharp images and are good for observing pinpoint light sources such as stars and planets, but tend to be on the expensive side.