Nikon 18-55mm VR lens?

How do I know how fast this lenses is?

I'm a complete newbie and want to start taking some pictures of landscapes and skies at dusk and at night time. I was told I need a lens that's f/2.8 or faster to do this.

Added (1). I'm going to buy the Nikon d3200 body so if anyone could suggest a decent lens for night time photos it would be great… Haven't got bags of money just something to begin with that doesn't get boring to quickly.don't want to be wanting a different lens after a week!

That lens sucks ***. You can tell the speed, or apeture from the numbers in the description which have an 'f' infront of them, if i'm not mistaken, i think this lens is somewhere around f3.5-5.6 the lower the number the faster the lens, so this lens is slower than f2.8, and a f1.8 would be faster than f2.8

For normal use, Nikon's 18-55 kit lens is a great lens. If *some* people think it sucks, they need to improve their skillz. True, for night shooting, a faster lens is needed; you can always up your ISO to compensate. A 2.8 pro-level lens is going to cost you "bags of money".

The 18-55 is actually a pretty good starter lens. If you want something faster, but don't want to spend a lot of money, check out the 3rd party brands like Sigma. They sell nice lenses for a lot less.
edit: Oh and I agree with the person above, the lens does not suck. You can definitely get good pictures from it, you just got to know how to use a camera.

The 18-55mm lens has an f/3.5-5.6 maximum aperture, this means it can go as far as f/3.5 at 18mm and reaches a maximum of f/5.6 at 55mm. However you've been misinformed on your lens requirements, for landscapes you do not need a fast lens, in fact you will never use a lens at it's maximum aperture because most of the time you need plenty of depth of field. So the 18-55mm kit lens will be perfectly fine in terms of aperture. In the long run you may find that the rotating front element is annoying because it make the use of graduated filters and polarising filters rather difficult to use.

What you need is a high quality tripod and head, something from Giottos, Gitzo or Manfrotto, expect to spend around £150-200 on a tripod. You'll also want a cable release as this reduces the amount of vibration when you press the shutter.

Equipment on the whole isn't exceptionally important beyond the basics of body, moderately wide lens, tripod/head, and cable release. Where you'll really gain advantage is in photographic skills, in the case of landscape photography, composition, exposure, sharpness/focus are all really important. Get a good grasp of Ansel Adams' 'Zone System' and learn the sweet spot of your lens, and understand how to balance that with the diffraction limit, and also study the composition in all forms of visual art.

It is a fine lens. How it is used makes the difference. For shots at dusk, have a solid tripod like a Monfrotto with a good head on it. Expect to spend $100 or more. Try craigslist for tripods. Get a heavy solid one, not a tin toy. It will serve you for years.

Once you have a good tripod, slow the shutter speed down in low light and you will get good images.

You have been told wrong!

If you are taking shots of landscapes and skies at dusk, you do NOT need a fast lens - you need a tripod. Your ISO should be at 100-200 for best image quality and aperture at f11-f16 for a deep depth of field. Shutter speed will then be quite slow - hence the need for a tripod. You do not handhold a camera for night shots, unless you are shooting people (then you would use a fast lens, higher ISO and/or flash).

The 18-55mm kit lens is fine to start with - the 18mm end will be wide angle enough for landscapes. It is true it is not a 'fast' lens - it has a max aperture of f3, 5 at 18mm and f5.6 at 55mm, but as explained above you do not need a fast lens.
(A fast lens is one capable of f2.8 or wider, throughout the zoom range if it is a zoom lens).