If you are interested in the night sky Orion Telescopes has put out a number of new scopes for very cheap. They have a very nice 3″ Reflector for $49.95, this will show you the moon and planets even from NYC. If you can get out of the city it will of course show you a lot more. I am in Israel and tend to go to the Negev, from NYC I would suggest maybe the Delaware Water Gap area. If you have a pair of binoculars those will work quite well too.
There are some very nice free star charts out there, you will need a printer of course.