Hi Robyn, and welcome to the madhouse.
Alex gives good advice. An 8" F 5 will give great visual and possibly be photo capable depending on a few factors but that can come later. Bino aversion or not a pair of 10 x 50 binos are brilliant just for scanning the sky and letting you find your way around. Stellarium is excellent with it's realistic representation of what you can see. With those three and a few decent eyepieces you can be happy and busy for about a year or so till you learn some of the terms and where the heck everything is up there.
By that stage you should know where your obsession is going and can make more decisions about what is next. I just hope your bank account is elastic for astro-imaging.
I've been on this trip for about 10 years now and am still upgrading, learning new systems and upgrading as I go. My intention is like Alex, to just keep going and I'm no spring chicken either.
Last piece of advice ...
Check the IIS For Sale section, scopes come up all the time as people upgrade and there are some excellent buys there. And whoever sells you a scope will make sure you get what you need to get started. That's what it's all about.
Enjoy ..!!
