Yet another newbie ‘what scope’ question!

[Matt Ikaruga]

Wanted to thank everyone for your responses, advice, friendly opinion. Still working on the final solution, whatever that looks like but this thread has opened up avenues never explored, I may be a little less certain than before 🤣 but all the more informed.

[TBRHussaR]

An 8 Inch dob is the best starting scope. Hands down. Easy to move/setup, and has enough aperture that gives interesting views. Actually a lot of guys who start with an 8 inch dob end up keeping it even after they buy bigger scopes (when the fever hits haha)

[Sunshine]

Get an 8" dob and be done with analysis paralysis which can be awful, it is a fantastic starter scope.

[HiveIndustries]

If I were in the OP shoes I'd wind up with a dob for sure, but that's me. Given his other list of wants in AP, not serious per say but still wanting to dabble, is there any reason no one has suggest liked a used 6" SCT on a stock GoTo mount like a Celestron? I bet if he was patient he could find one around his price range. Am I completely off base?