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Welcome Duncan,
As Lost in Space and Wavy have mentioned, a budget of $400-$600 will not stretch a long way, and a second hand scope may be the way to kick start things. Your location says "city" so any chance of seeing fainter objects (galaxies and nebulae) from a backyard/city location will be reliant on getting as large an aperture as your budget will allow, so the 8" dob is a great idea. You can probably source 8"collapsible dobs for around $600 and solid tube dobs for around $500, both new, and used dobs come up fairly regularly in the classifieds. For your budget you may stretch to a 10" or 12" second hand dob if you're lucky, but at that size they can get a little cumbersome to lug out at a moment's notice. As for the astrophotography, you may get a decent shot of the moon (and not much else) through an 8" dob, but to produce the kinds of fantastic images a lot of the people on IIS can achieve, you're looking at many thousands of dollars worth of gear, a different scope/mount, and a pretty intense learning curve - I'd suggest start off with the visual stuff and then you can decide to move into the dark arts of imaging as your enthusiasm/expertise/budget dictates. Good luck!
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