3 grand is about entry level for what you're after, with nothing left to buy imaging gear or guiding extras. Meade and Celestron make good quality go-to scopes in that price range.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/lansma/Default.htm is a good site which gives an idea of what can be achieved with a Meade LX90, ToUcam and Canon DSLR. There are also some 8 inch Maksutov-Cassegrain scopes, (e.g. Saxon M20325EQ5) with equatorial mounts, coming soon, that would probably be around $3k with goto, although the quality is an unknown factor at this stage.
http://www.splendourtrading.com.au/new.html