Ping me if you get some good answers, I like telescopes........
I just bought an Orion for my stepfather for XMas. It was over $1k, but one thing I learned is that a lot of scopes these days come with computer/iPad control. Calibrate, and then you can use an app like SkySafari to punch in what you want to look at. Don’t know if motorized scopes are in that price range. Also, auto-tracking is good, it’s amazing how fast objects move and it’s a pain to have to manually adjust the scope as you’re viewing. My 1.5 cents.