Well the thing about stars is that no matter how good your telescope is they always just look like stars
The only star you'll be able to see detail on is Sol, and you'd need Baader film for that (DO NOT POINT A TELESCOPE AT THE SUN WITHOUT IT! ALSO DON'T TRUST THOSE TINY EYEPIECE 'SOLAR FILTERS', THEY'RE RUBBISH AND COULD EASILY KILL YOU, BLIND YOU IF YOU'RE LUCKY). But the good news is that stars aren't the only thing that's up there. Aside from the planets, there's nebulae, galaxies, clusters and a whole host of other objects. A new version of Turn Left at Orion (the Spiral Bound one) was recently released, and that should be required reading for anyone getting into astronomy.
Aside from the used TAL scopes i already mentioned, £150 would get you something like an Astromaster 130EQ, but since they're both equatorial you might find them a bit hard to use which could put you off. I've heard a lot of good things about the Skywatcher Heritage 130p Flextube, which you can get from First Light Optics and is a great beginner scope, and lots of people who got one to begin with still use is a a 'grab and go'. And whatever you get a moon filter and 2x barlow (or eyepieces tailored to your scope) would be worth considering, or at least putting on your to buy list.
Your other option would be binoculars (and a tripod... and maybe deck chair
), which could be cheaper and are a great way to learn the sky - but obviously don't offer as much magnification/gather as much light. That does allow you to use them to view a whole different range of objects, and it's a good option for people who aren't sure if it's for them and maybe don't want to jump straight in by buying a telescope.
If you're interested then a good next step would be to get yourself on SGL, i haven't found a better all round (i would call Cloudy Nights more specialized
)astronomy community yet:
http://stargazerslounge.com/
