Hi Teash. I have owned both options mentioned so far and now I have begun to go down the expensive road as I am wanting to do deep space photo's. An 80mm Refractor would be ideal if you are wanting to keep the costs down. You will be able to take great pictures of the moon and Saturn, Jupiter Etc wtih the use of a simple cheap WebCam. You will need a laptop or computer to do it, and a simple bit of free software called Registax.. You take some video of an object and it breaks it down into a single good picture.. all for around $300 or so. A Dobsonian is also a good choice and you will see more for your money, but they are larger and need more care and adjustment. They are a little more difficult to use with a WebCam as they tend to move around a bit. And they are large with thier base. Mine took up the whole back of my station wagon when I took it out to a site.. Impressed my friends
hope I have been some help. Whatever you start with, it will only be the start. You will always get your money back on a Refractor and you most likely will grow with the hobby as you learn more.
Regards
Mardy