Re: one scope only!!!!!

I would get a lightly-used, structurally-tight dob in the 11" to 15" range with a really great primary mirror in it (Zambuto, Stevens, Swayze, etc.). f/4.3 to maybe f/5.5 or so. Transportable, good amount of aperture, sharp views. To keep the costs down, I'd either build or buy used a decent eq. table so that I could view without hand-tracking.