Hi and welcome Starry Skies
, do you have a budget in mind for your first scope? i was in your shoes not long ago and made a mistake of buying a "cheap" newtonian on an eq mount from a certain electronics store and for a newbie like me it was a bit of a dissapointing scope as i found it pretty hard to move around the skies. I say forget the goto function as you will be giving up aperture in favour of the goto, but thats just my opinion.
I could only ever reccomend a dobsonian mounted newt as you get more mirror aperture for your $$$ which equals more views for you
plus you will get to know the skies well pushing the thing around manually rather than having a computer goto the object.
Dont worry you will get great advice on here from these great guys,and dont be afraid to ask questions
I'm seriously thinking of buying 
my first scope, up until now I have only used binoculars 10 x 50 and that was for the Planets,now I would like to get into deep sky objects,as I don't know the night sky to well I was thinking of buying a 8" Meade Goto scope,any suggestions or help would be appreciated,pitfalls etc in buying a scope either new or second hand.
) I know the DOB's are better per buck size wise, but the GOTO's do all that searching for you, I also should have asked is the Meade better than other goto scopes? they seem to have a better name or should I say more popular.
