[autocorr]

Start with a small set of binoculars! They are critically underrated. I think the best part of amateur astronomy is knowing the sky in an intuitive way. With a pair of 7x35 binos (~40 USD online) and a dark site you can see a ton of stuff and they're dead simple to use. And you'll still get a lot of use out of them as a finding-aid with larger aperture equipment. I keep a small set in my car just in case I'm ever at a dark site.

Even if you live in a heavily light polluted city, you can do something astronomy-adjacent with binos: satellite hunting! HeavensAbove[1] has a really nice free android app for it. Satellites are mainly visible at dusk or dawn, and dusk is a lot easier than staying up late depending on your schedule. Plus it's like a race, they may only up for less than a couple minutes, so you have to have a keen sky-sense to pick them out. It's cool being able to know what they are too -- "huh, that's some Soviet rocket booster from the 70's"!

[1] https://www.heavens-above.com/