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Carl speaks wise words. Talk to others, join a club, have a look at what others are doing. I bought my scope based on my experiences with astrogear at high school and then joined a club. Had I done things in the proper order and joined a club first, I would have bought a German Equatorial Mount.
The advice from those with experience in my club is to learn to image at short focal lengths and work your way up to longer focal lengths. An 8 inch SCT with a 3.3 focal reducer would at best reduce to ~600mm focal length, but that meade focal reducer has a very small imaging circle - far smaller than a DSLR and most modern CCDs - you would only get a small circle in the middle of your imaging chip. It's not the same as imaging through an 80mm refractor with a 600mm focal length.
I have stopped imaging with my LX-90 (sold my wedge) and will move "back" to imaging at ~6-800mm focal length on a GEM. Assuming that goes well, I may defork the optical tube from my LX-90 and try that on the GEM.
I have seen some fair examples of imaging at 2000mm focal length through an LX-90 on the web - these people must have the patience of a Saint in my opinion. With my limited attempts, I only achieved elongated stars and really average graphs on the guiding software.
Carl's suggestion of video astronomy is an excellent idea - I've seen a few guys doing this through 8inch SCTs on Alt-Az mounts with great results.
If you want to let it be, astrophotography can be extremely expensive - much like standing in a cold shower tearing up $100 bills.
DT
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