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As Sil and Malcolm alluded to, no one telescope is ever going to be all things to all people. A $1500 budget, while it doesn't seem insignificant for a first scope, probably won't stretch far at all into the astrophotography side of things, as this can be a hellishly expensive branch of amateur astronomy. If your primary concern is focusing on DSOs and learning the sky, then aperture is your friend and a dobsonian is probably the best value for money in this area, particularly if you can get to a dark site. However you do live in an apartment, and unless you have a lift I'd possibly have reservations about a dob, as lugging one up and down stairs would be asking for trouble on several fronts (damaging the scope, damaging your back, etc).
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