Astrophotography in the Playground

[Psionic Dog]

Anyone here into astrophotography?
What setups do you guys have?

I'm looking to give this a try and have been poking around Amazon looking for telescopes and realized I have no idea which features have priority over others.

Should I push my budget and grab a Celestron 80LCM or chance used with a NexStar 114 GT?
Should I skip go-to capability for a bigger PowerSeeker 127EQ with a motor drive and extra lenses?
Should I pass on the Celestron brand for a 4.5" Meade Polaris or Orion StarBlast?

Just trying to see if there is any advice to be had before I start rolling dice or opt for the cheapest package that appears to fit my needs.

[Lord Torath]

I'd love to be able to give you some hard advice, but unfortunately, I'm not any kind of astrophotographer. A quick google search on Astrophotography gives the first result: Astrophotography Tips and Techniques by Jerry Lodriguss. I can't vouch for its usefulness or accuracy; it's just the first thing that came up.

Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy (http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html) would almost certainly have some good advice, and could probably refer you to others. He frequently posts the work of other astrophotographers with links to their websites on his blog. (He gets obscene amounts of email though, so you might not get a response)

Your best bet might be to find a local astronomy club and pay them a visit (google "Astronomy Club" and your city). They'll probably be thrilled to help you get started, and even let you try their equipment.

[Psionic Dog]

The smart thing for me to have done would probably have been to grab a Go-To refractor telescope. That would have been the user-friendly option.

The smartest thing would have been to meet up with the local Astronomy club. (That was a really good suggestion, I can't believe I didn't think of that myself.)

However my impatient emotionally biased choice was to go ahead and order a 4.5" Polaris reflector since (a) I want to make sure it arrives before the July 4th family faction, and (b) simply wanted more aperture than I could afford in a refractor.

...

I'll post pictures and a review next month on a novice's attempt at Astrophotography. It looks like August will be the earliest conflicting schedules will allow me to catch up with the local astronomy club, but that was still a good idea.

[Palanan]

You might take a look at some issues of Astronomy and Sky & Telescope, the two main skywatching magazines here in the U.S. I know Astronomy has been following astrophotography with CCDs since the early 90s, and the reader photos they print every month are absolutely gorgeous. You can probably pick up some tips and techniques from their articles.