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Thanks again for all of the responses. I have taken stock of the (wildly differing of course! 😆) opinions in your comments and am now swinging towards the suggestion of an Evostar 80ED, possibly with an az-gti on an upgraded tripod (EQ6 most likely), so that I can slot in an upgraded mount in future if I decide that I need to move to EQ for astrophotography. This should hopefully provide something fairly portable that should give us a good start in visual, with the option to move to AP as and when I'm ready.

Thanks so much for all the replies, and apologies for the delay in response. As usual, work and family life can take over from time to time! To answer the question on our existing scope, it's a Tasco 89T Refractor from the 70s. Can't find out much info about it, but it is basically no good as the tripod wobbles enough that one knock sends anything but the moon straight out of view! Reading the above it seems that there is not a vast amount of consensus on what the best option is, perhaps a Dob, perhaps a refractor, but a newtonian on a mount like the HEQ 5 is probably not the best idea. One other option I had considered was the ED80, which did get a mention. We live in a Bortle 7 location, but will look to do some dark sky camping with the scope once we have one. That being said, seeing things from the garden will also be a requirement. Plenty more to think about though, and I'll report back when I've considered further. Thanks again!

Thanks for the quick responses. Definitely some more to think on. Happy to hear as many opinions as possible!

Hi all, Just as a quick background, as a family, my wife, kids and I have always had an interest in all things astronomical (my daughter decided aged 3 that she would like to be an astrobiologist when she grows up) and we have been using a very old, poor quality and rickety telescope passed on by my grandfather to spot a few bits and pieces in the night sky. This was his old telescope that we were given when he passed away a couple of years ago. Now that his affairs have been settled, some money was left for each of his grandchildren. As we inherited his old telescope, my immediate thought would be to continue this legacy by upgrading to a better quality scope. Now I've done quite a bit of research over the last few days and, while the general advice tends to be 'visual or imaging', I'm hoping we can go for an all-rounder that will allow the kids (aged 5 and 7) to enjoy the planets and other brighter deep-sky objects visually, but will also allow me to start doing some astrophotography. While the kids won't have the patience for sitting out for long sessions, they will really enjoy the results, so will also get to enjoy this side of things until they get older and can get more involved. With a budget of £1k, I'm wondering if hunting for a second-hand HEQ5 Pro and pairing this with a Skywatcher Explorer (130pds, 150pds or even 200pds) would be a good starting point? We already have a DSLR for imaging (a Nikon d5000). I'm open to hearing other solutions though! Oh, and one other thing: Does there tend to be much in the way of discounts available around black friday for astronomy equipment, or is second-hand my best bet to get more bang for my buck? Thanks in advance