Hi Liz, you have been given some good advice from fellow IIS members! In my humble opinion a DSLR would be a great companion for the Toucam. You will be able to get nice whole moon shots and up closer shots with the right barlow or teleconverter and solar shots (with the appropriate filter) Do beautiful wideangle shots on a fixed tripod etc.. and if you enjoy this then you can try your hand at some piggyback wideangle shots with standard lenses (when you upgrade to a EQ mount or a suitable base) and short prime focus shots. Also you will have much fun taking everyday pics with your new toy. DSLR`s ,well everyone I have seen up close has a "Bulb" setting and you can take a image for as long as the battery lets you! I have seen over 2 hour star trail shots by a local! very noisey but you can do it! the Canon cameras have fairly low noise for a uncooled sensor thats why there are so many of us using them...then you can get them modded, but won`t go into that..
Dedicated Astro cameras are the ultimate for deepsky work but so is the learning curve as well as the complexity of setting up and processing, I wouldn`t recommend someone starting out jumping in the deep end!
With a EQ mount as well you should pull some nice planetary images as well! I can understand your frustration with a sticky push it Dob!
Get a nice DSLR and a mount that tracks and have heaps of fun...
