Greetings Earthlings

I live paycheck to paycheck, sometimes. Is there a quality in-expensive telescope for looking into the beauty of the night sky?

Ye, there are lots of good choices. But my first piece of advice is stay away from cheap departmet store telescopes - especially any scope that boasts about its magnification power. I suggest you take a look at both the "Sky and Telescope" and "Astronomy" web sites elow - they have lost of good advice on buying your first scpoe. Best bang for the buck would be a Newtonian reflector, or a variation of it known as a Dobsonian. Actually, often the best first telescope is a not a scope at all, but a good pair of binoculars.

See:

SkyandTelescope.com - Choosing Your Equipment - Choosing Your First Telescope (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/equipment/basics/12511616.html)
Astronomy.com - Equipment (http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=ss&id=156)

Read your post and thought I'd check out e-bay. There are more than 900 telescopes listed. On the first page, there's a Meade 114A Digital(DS-114AT) for a hundred bucks.

They go for even less if you get one without the motor.

Happy Viewing