Astro binos overkill? Not at all!
The way to think of it is this: A telescope concentrates the view on a very small area of the sky. Believe it or not, there are some features of the night sky that a telescope just doesn't cut the mustard. These features require really low magnification and a wide field of view. This is where binoculars come into their own.
Think I'm kidding? The scope I take to dark sites is my 17.5" dob - a real light bucket. But, no matter how I try, it is just the wrong instrument for wide, sweeping views of the Milky Way with its myriad of dark dust clouds, massive star clouds, and even some elusive nebulae respond better to the smaller, more concentrated image that binos give.
Which astro binos? 80mm is a BIG set. And with 20X magnification, hand held is not an option, and mounting such a pair on an everyday photo tripod is not a safe option - they are just too heavy, and require more specialised mounting. My own astro binos are an 11X70 pair. They give me a massive 4.5deg true field of view (the full Moon is 1/2degree in size, 4.5deg is 9 full moon diameters). 70mm is still very big, but at only 11X magnification, they are still a hand held option. They are still on the large side for a photo tripod, but they are just as easy to rest against a post or fence, or whatever, to keep them steady.
A good place to get both the scope and binos are from Andrews Communications:
http://andrewscom.com.au/site-section-10.htm
Look under the Guan Sheng banner for the 8" scope, which they have listed at $429. The 11X70 binos you'll find under their "Binoculars" heading in the left margin, and then under their "Andrews" banner for $169. For the price, these binos are very good. Andrews also has good rates for freight.