billche.
Do you mean by "view the open sky from my notebook" that you can drive the scope with a notebook, or see on your notebook screen, what comes through the eyepiece? what notebook are you using?
$4500 can get you an aweful lot of equipment even for a goto. Myself I fell in love with an 8" Meade LX200GPS-SMT (Currently around $3200) for your price you could get the 10" but that would leave you with next to nothing for other accessories like a few extra good eyepieces, or a wedge for equatorial mounting for astrophotography. If you want the same views with a bit less cost and automation (still with goto though) then consideration should be given for the LX90 range. Same optics as the LX200, just not as many gizmos.
Celestron have a similar sort of range but I'm not familiar with their pricing structure. From research I've done in the last few months (I'm currently re-outfitting) the Celestron 9.25 SCT is for its size the premium mid-range Sct available today at a reasonable price.
If your seriously considering going the Astrophotography way then straight to the EQ mounted scope would be the least frustrating way to go, IMHO. Minimum 8" SCT/MakNewt on a good quality EQ mount (Skywatcher, Losmandy G-8 etc) can be expensive when set up for goto but the minimum stability if considering photography.
I'm sure others here will pipe up with their opinion, its what we do here
so you'll gets lots of valuable information. Also do an advanced search for previous post along the same lines as your questions. Incase we miss something you haven't thought of yet
