Perhaps serious was the wrong word. I regard "serious" as meaning aiming
for high quality images such as those that frequently grace our main forum.
These routinely require long to very long exposures, over several sessions,
and, incidentally, require comprehensive processing skills.
As a contrast to this, if you have seen any of my images here, you will
realise that I have never reached those heights in digital imaging, having
spent many many years doing film imaging, but being seriously
computer illiterate, couldn't get my head around anything more than basic processing; almost all my processing is done in DSS.
Regarding obs in town, it depends upon how big a town, whether the town lights are between you and the best part of your
sky for imaging, etc: you can significantly reduce light pollution with a filter.
raymo