First buy help.

[celestron8g8]

For your budget this scope has mount and a tracking motor and would be my choice . I have a Bushnell 5" exactly like this with no motor drive and it was my first good scope and I loved it ! Still have it bought back in 96' . It's a good scope especially for observing . Only thing you need to do is learn how to polar align and your good to go . 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-explorer-130m.html

[Louis D]

1 hour ago, celestron8g8 said:

For your budget this scope has mount and a tracking motor and would be my choice . I have a Bushnell 5" exactly like this with no motor drive and it was my first good scope and I loved it ! Still have it bought back in 96' . It's a good scope especially for observing . Only thing you need to do is learn how to polar align and your good to go . 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/skywatcher-explorer-130m.html

As a beginner, did you find the EQ mount at all difficult to set up or use?  How prone was it to shaking and vibration compared to a Dob mount, for instance?  How about the views with the spherical mirror vs a paraboloidal mirror?

Looks like you entered amateur astronomy about 2 years ahead of me.  I went down the Dob road with a paraboloidal primary and am still using it today.  I just learned to track by nudging.

[celestron8g8]

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

As a beginner, did you find the EQ mount at all difficult to set up or use?  How prone was it to shaking and vibration compared to a Dob mount, for instance?  How about the views with the spherical mirror vs a paraboloidal mirror?

Looks like you entered amateur astronomy about 2 years ahead of me.  I went down the Dob road with a paraboloidal primary and am still using it today.  I just learned to track by nudging.

I've never owned a official dob and that Bushnell was first good scope . The mount is easy to assemble . The head had pre attached rings so all I had to do was attach three legs and center EP plate , put the OTA in the rings and clamp down and attach the Finder Scope . All really simple assemble and carry . With that type of mount I didn't worry much about P.A. , I just set alt , adjusted scope to "O" on the setting circles then moved the scope so I was able to see Polaris in the crosshairs of the finder scope then I was done . I also attached the R.A. and Dec. control knobs to the mount . I was done . The mirror for it's quality was still a great mirror especially for the price cost , $269.00 at a local SamsClub . My first DSO ever to find and by mistake was M3 . Blew me away . I didn't know the night skies then so I bought a couple sky maps and started learning how to find constellations first but didn't know how to find DSOs' so I just pointed the scope at things in the sky and looked for anything I could find . The moon definitely was easy and bright ! As far as shaking I always scoped in my back yard and high fences helped keep out LP and most wind but it is a light weight setup altogether so yes wind effected slightly when blowing hard but back in the 90s' march was our worst windy month and the rest of the year wasn't bad at all and at night it would slow down sometimes to "O" . I kicked the mount a few times and had to move it back in position but I didn't care unless I found something I liked to look at cause it was hard to find again . But that's the way grab and go scopes are , gotta expect that . The important thing was to have fun ! The only "CON" about the mount is being careful to not strip the gears in the head cause they are cheap material and can be stripped easily . The other annoying thing is having to readjust the scope when you were looking at things at zenith because the tube would end up touching a leg and if you were following a object it would only go so far then you had to swing the scope back to the other side of the mount to continue tracking . I had manual tracking so I was constantly adjusting,  but the scope in the link I posted has a tracking motor so that's a plus ! But over all for a beginner scope it's a great scope and cheap for budget . When your just learning no need to get into the heavy stuff like imaging and being perfect . What's important is learning the night sky and how to find objects of interest . Once you get that down then concentrate on DSOs' and nebulaes and things such as that . The night sky is a wonderful way to spend the night at an EP ! Just looking at all the different stars and seeing their colors and shine is exciting and they are easy to find ! Just point your scope at the night sky and I guarantee you'll find a star ! 

Hope this helps you with info about that scope . I've wanted a dob for a long time but in my situation now I've decided to past on that and just go to star parties when I can . 

Then in 97' I got aperture fever and bought my Celestron C8 on a German EQ5 mount with dual tracking motors . And that's what I've had since then . then in 09' I got refractor fever and I bought a Stellarvue AT1010 OTA with mounting rings and used it on my EQ5 mount . It was great for a achromatic scope but was top quality for an Achro scope and it was Stellarvue with a reputable name . I still have it but C.A. is very evident with bright objects but the clarity when focused was fantastic . I imaged a few times with it but only with a DSLR D300 and no matter what processing I couldn't  get rid of bad C.A. so I only used the C8 or camera with lens mounted piggyback for imaging and observing . I still have all three scopes but i'm retiring from almost everything except seeing what people post on forums  , age and health but the heart is still there . Eye's aren't as good anymore either . 

[Jimtheslim]

I'm going to really out the cat amongst the pigeons...how about a 90mm refractor on a simple alt-az mount? You'd also have enough in the budget for a nice dialectic diagonal or possibly a nice ortho eyepiece (or both of you get a good used bargain). It might not gather as much light as it's reflecting cousins, but would offer nice sharp planetary views and open up a few dso's. You'll have to consider light pollution from where you will be viewing. If this is going to be an issue a larger reflector might not reveal the m anyway, especially if you don't have a car to travel to a darker sky site.

sorry to confuse matters, but that's the kind of set up i enjoyed when I started out and a large part of me would love to go back to owning a good refractor. 

as for a barlow, only consider one after getting a better eyepiece or two (or a flight case full of them) ?????