Welcome to the forum. (sounds strange me saying that as I'm so new myself
)
What about something as simple as a Skywatcher ED80 on a HEQ5 Skyscan and a 300D (or similar). You could easily change the OTA later for something bigger but the images I've from a 300D and ED80 pretty much knocks spots of every thing else. Massive FOV's pin point stars, excellent colour correction.
The skyscan has massive slewing speeds, goto and is PEC trainable.
For me if I was starting again from scratch that would be the way that I went.
Just my 2p's worth
Ant