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Brett,
I’ve owned and used 8” and 10” Bintel GSO solid tube manual push nudge dobs for the past 3 years and now I have a Skywatcher 12” Goto dob which I’ve used for the past year
From my experience Skywatcher Goto dobs up to and including the 12” are easy to move around with a Bunnings parcel trolley either extended or collapsed provided you have hard surfaces like concrete, pavers, tiles or compressed gravel etc... ( I’m 60 years old and weigh 72kg )
The Goto function in Alt Az is “very accurate” provided your scope is really level and pointing roughly to the north meridian in the home position and most importantly use an illuminated reticle eye piece like an Orion 20mm 70 deg eye piece for centering your alignment stars ( 2 star alignment is more than adequate for an accurate pointing model )
I had some success but also struggled with the solid tube manual dobs trying to find objects “star hopping” around which to me is an acquired skill after many years of practice and understanding but also a frustration I was not prepared to deal with for the rest of my astronomy life ( clear skies are precious and waisting time trying to find objects is not in my opinion productive or fun )
Once I got my 12” Goto up and running it was such a great experience and I maximise my observing time every time I’m out under the stars
The most important part of your telescope is the eye piece which is your door to the universe. Put a great eye piece in a crappy scope and you still get reasonably good views but put a crappy eye piece is a great telescope and the views are less than satisfactory ( in most cases )
I went to high end Televue eye pieces straight off the bat ( I’m fortunate to be able to afford them ) and the views through the 12” Goto dob are literally out of this world on a night of good seeing ( pardon the pun )
From my experiences, I thoroughly recommend the Skywatcher 10” or 12” Goto dob and upgrade at some stage later with some better quality eye pieces when you can afford them to maximise your observing pleasure
Good luck !!!
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