what is a good zoom lens? for far away pictures (like moon, far away scenery, etc)

what is a good lens for fast sports?

also, how important are filters, and for what?

anddd, what about flashes? i use an oldddd one my mom had for her 35mm film camera, but it works.

I'm new to photography and i'm not real good with all the lingo and stuff, so if anythign needs cleard up ill do my best, haha.

edit:
i use a d3000

edit#2:
what are lens hoods for?

This post was edited by xbaun on Feb 26 2010 12:03pm

this for moon, maybe use 2x extender with it

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/300-800mm-f56-ex-dg-apo-hsm-sigma

nikon 70-200 2.8 for fast sports

filters are usually important just for protecting your lens(if shooting digital), but there are polarizer filters that remove reflections and that why makes clear sky darker, then there is infrared filters if u want to shoot on infrared spectrum only

lens hoods are for removing flares on the front lens by eliminating light coming to lens from the sides

ty
any other opinions? also after looking at those, i dont have thousands of $ to drop on lenses just yet =P
any cheaper ones that wont sacrifice quality for price? but will still capture what i need? hahahaha
i realize how impossible that sounds


edit:
im looking at a 55-200mm f/4-5.6G, what about this?

This post was edited by xbaun on Feb 26 2010 01:03pm

A cheap alternative to the sigmonster is a bigmos (sigma 150-500 f5-6.3 OS)
http://www.amazon.com/Sigma-150-500mm-Telephoto-Digital-Cameras/dp/B001542X64/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1267211014&sr=8-5

With a 2x teleconverter.

This post was edited by Eek on Feb 26 2010 01:04pm

quality costs and quality zoom lenses cost more compared to prime lens

55-200 is a good lens for the money you put into it.
If you want extreme zoom you could take a look at the tamron 200-500.
In between there is a large variety of lenses. Please specify a bit more what you are looking for.
If you dont got thousands of dollars to spend you can choose between sb-400 (cheapest, very limited usage) and sb-600 (mid version, far superior to sb-400)
or sb-900 which is state of the art for nikon flashes, I have sb-600 and it does the trick quite good.
However, if 55-200 4-5.6 is what your pocket can reach, go for it! It's sharp and good for the money you pay. However you wont catch any quick movement unless you are taking pics in daylight

all the sports pics would be in daylight or a fairly brightly lit gym setting
and thanks very much for the input

Inside sports halls are often poorly lit so dont build up too high expectations on that one! That's where people prefer large apartures and 1600-3200 ISO settings.

does anyone know if the Nikon AF Nikkor 70-200mm f/4-5.6 will auto focus and fully function with the d3000?
i read somewhere that one of the lenses i was looking at doesnt, and i don't remember if its this one or one of the others >.<

Wat? 70-200 4-5.6? Never heard of it, do you mean 70-300 or 55-200?
70-200 is a 2.8 unless you found something odd that is.