Hi Everard! Don't worry about posting another "what scope should I get" thread
We were all newbies once and we then loved to get the advice
And there's plenty of helpful folk here who love to give it
For everything you want (goto/tracking), as well as being able to support astrophotography, I don't think $1500 is going to cut it i'm afraid. You'd really need to start at around $3000 and look at a 2nd hand LX90 or similar. There's been a few for sale on IIS lately.
Also for visual observing, what size aperture do you want? I take you want tracking and goto right off the bat, which does narrow the choice - otherwise you'd get 50 people telling you do buy a dob