Hi Michael,
I'd suggest an ED refractor (not an ordinary achromatic doublet) at least 80mm aperture and ideally about 100mm aperture. You can find them new or secondhand (keep an eye on
www.astromart.com as well as the equipment forum here), good ones come up often enough. Even though I have been observing 40 years and built a few scopes I keep one of these as its perfect to travel, visually sharp for showing family/friends the moon or planets, and while I don't do astrophotography it would be fine for that on an equatorial mount. This kind of 4" refractor is something you will keep for many years and probably regret parting with, if its a good one.
For visual use f/5 refractors are too short for good sharp high power images; you really should try to find an ED refractor f/7 to f/9.
The f/5 refractors are "rich field" scopes, designed work at low magnification either as finders for a larger scope, or to pack the most stars into a wide field ("rich field" telescopes). Binoculars fall into this category too. Generally they do not work well at high magnification.