Hello All.

I am new to this board so I thought I would take a moment to say hello and ask a question.
I am a computer technician / web designer in central Florida and not an astronomer by any means. I have, however, been fascinated by astronomy and physics for some time and have read everything I have been able to access on the topics (Discover, Astronomy, Scientific America, Stephen Hawking books, web, etc..) I have also followed this board for some time and learned several things from it.
Once I could understand a post from HUb' (no offence) I decided it was safe to post.
My Question is simply; can anybody suggest a decent telescope between three and five hundred dollars? Also, Has anyone else ever been accused of being pedantic for studying this sort of thing as a pastime?