Thank you, guys!
That's a great primer on guiding, and good to hear about the tighter weight constraints with astrophotography.
I'd love to say "stuff it, I'll just grab the EQ6R" but even for someone who tends to dive in and give myself a chance to love a hobby by getting good intro gear, that seems a lot! That said, I wonder if the kids would have great visual moments with a 6"...
I've (we've) had a LOT of time on my hands, so yeah, I've had a look at darkness maps and see that my Bortle is class 5 here in western ACT, but happy to see that I can access dark skies easily.
Ah, its the same old discussion/conundrum! Trade-offs everywhere I turn
I wonder if a suitable (thrifty) starting answer would be to keep the rig simple .... 8.75kg OTA, supplied finder scope (couple of hundred grams?), no guiding gear, 500g SLR and see how I go getting good polar alignment, stack 30-45sec exposures... Is this pie in the sky thinking?