I would go for one of the smaller motorised models with the computerised drive. It will make viewing so much easier and they are not that expensive.

I agree with Old Mart. Once you sort out the lineup you can spend a pleasant evening letting your telescope take you on a tour.

At one star party with the local astro society that I was member of, I ended up with a bit of a queue of interested passers-by taking a look at half-a-dozen or so good targets that the scope was finding pretty accurately. IIRC the Ring Nebula and the Great Cluster in Hercules showed especially well.

That was a Celestron NexStar 6SE, which I think many would regard as entry-level though there are several smaller.

A good birdwatching scope with a powerful eyepiece can give a certain amount of interest, especially on solar-system objects, and in the best conditions even century-old big-game stalking scopes can produce pretty results if decently mounted. Mounting stability and manipulability is fully as important as anything in the optics.

It does depend on the end objective (deliberate)
If just wanting to have a look at stuff visually then manual alignment is OK. If wanting fancy stacked pics then ideally motorised.

When I lived in Sth London I did buy a 6" refractor and had some happy time looking at the planets and their moons but it is huge and heavy and has been standing in the barn here, unused, for many years – partly because I live surrounded by hills and because Wales doesn't do clear skies very often and lugging it out, waiting for temperatures to stabilise on a cold clear winter's night did get old.
If you’re not too far from mid-Wales you'd be welcome to come play or I’d let it go for reasonable – but it is big.

pgk