Hey mate
Good question - as a newbie myself, I can provide my opinion based on what I've found which may or may not be a good idea
Anyway, my first scope was/is a Maksutov Cassegrain telescope - a 5 inch skywatcher Black Diamond. These scopes are great (across various brands) as they can get large apatures in a small scope and are easy to move around. I then got a 8inch newtonian as it was on sale, and you're right - these are big scopes! But for the price they are great value for money. With size comes mobility issues, and with a smaller price tag you will have more maintenance (collimation). I decided to sell my cassegrain (for sale in this formum for under 500 bucks
) as I wanted to do imaging and I bought a refractor. It's an ED80, so a small apature compared to the Mak and the Newt, but it gives suprisingly good views. If you plan on imaging in the future, I'd suggest getting a good mount (equatorial) that can support a heavy load, such as the EQ6. If you're are going to use it just for visual observation, then an Alt/Az mount should be fine, and cheaper.
For 500 bucks though, to get a mount and scope of a big apature might be a little tough to find. You could get a nice scope second hand for that much but you'd be wanting to get a good mount to hold it up, GEM or Alt/Az either way.
In regards to seeing the planets - most scopes will give you good views. All of the above mentioned that I have listed can see saturn and jupiter and the craters of the moon easily, but the polar caps of mars depends on how far mars is away from us at a given time. Right now it just looks like a dot.
But maybe get the opinion of those more experienced first as, like I said, I am still new to all this. Hope that helps
