Welcome to the forum Suzanne.
That certainly seems a reasonable telescope for a beginner. It is light, easily portable, quick to set up and will give good views of the planets, the moon and many deep-sky objects. There are two eyepieces and a barlow lens, giving you four possible magnifications, and the dew cap is always a useful accessory in our rather damp climate. The tripod seems to be quite sturdy as well. Being a refractor, you will not need to worry about collimation (lining up the glassware).
My main concern would be the finder scope. 6x30 is a reasonable size, indeed, I have a similar sized finder on my C6, but the quality of finders tends to vary a lot. If it proved to be difficult to use, it can easily be replaced with a red dot finder. But you never know, it could be easy to use.
All in all, if you feel that this is telescope for you, then I would encourage you to go for it.
Other scopes in that price bracket which have a good reputation include the following
www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=ev90eq2www.firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=tal1www.acecameras.co.uk/asp/web/recorprod/1/product/12103/cat/1529/ph/cat/keywords//recor/1/SearchFor//PT_ID/1/product.aspThe first one I have selected is another refractor, the second two are reflectors, ie they use a mirror rather than a lens to capture starlight.
Here's an article by our own Andy Johnson which is full of good advice;
www.eaas.co.uk/news/choosing_a_telescope.htmlIf I was to go for one of these, it would be the last one, the Skyhawk, which has a super reputation and great extras. The Tal, although heavier than the others, is a superb little scope with an excellent mount. In reality, there are many to choose from, and the quality of them all will be fairly equal. It is quite difficult to buy a "bad" telescope these days.
If you can spend a little more money, then you should consider a dobsonian telescope like this;
www.telescopesales.co.uk/skydob.htmDobsonians are also reflectors, but because they sit on a simple wooden base rather than a tripod, they are relatively cheap compared to other scopes, but provide a much larger light-gathering capacity and thus you can see a lot more faint objects, like galaxies. Dobsonians are, overall, the best value "bangs-per-buck" telescopes.
If you are a complete beginner, a pair of binoculars is a very good investment, if you don't already have a pair. You will be surprised how much you can see with them. All the members of the society who are regular observers own at least one pair, and use them a lot of the time at observing sessions.
And also, a book like "Turn Left at Orion" will tell you almost everything you need to know to get involved in this fantastic hobby.
Make sure you buy from a good dealer, stay away from ebay. First Light Optics are very good, and Andy McCrea down in Bangor (NorthDown Telescopes) is excellent.
And lastly, join a good local society to learn more and meet similarly inclined nice people. I hear the EAAS is quite good ;D
Best of luck.
(I've already modified this post five times as I remember more info. No doubt you will be hearing from a few others as well, with different opinions and things I have forgotten