Hi Luca,
Welcome to an exciting hobby!
Sil, Malcolm and Patrick have provided excellent advice and recommendations in regards starting off.
I am still new into Astronomy but I an share my experiences starting off. I found that visual Astronomy is a better option for me starting off. Astrophotography can be frustrating to pick up without a decent understanding of the sky and scopes/guiding/alignment and the complications with additional cabling/power on top. I generally have limited time with family and work commitments - Astrophotography takes a lot of time to get right.
$1500 is a decent budget for a visual scope and you should be able to get 1-2 good eyepieces as well. Starting off you need to determine whether you want a manual or goto system. Starting off I found a goto system helped a lot but you need to learn some bright stars to align.
If I had to start off again, I would get a 8inch goto dob as the ideal compromise for portability and ease of use. Any 10inch scope SCT or Dob I have found starts getting heavy to carry unless you get wheels or a trolley.
Another thing is if the scope can be broken down and transported and if you have a partner in crime to observe with you
. Having another person helps and its more fun to share the experience.
I have used my dob to do basic EAA which uses software to stack and stack short sec exposures.
Hope this helps.
Mel