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One thing nearly always forgotten in these discussions is video astronomy.
To me it gives the joy and immediacy of visual astronomy, with the vibrant colour and detail of CCD astrophotography.
You get an astro-video camera, and a small viewing screen, you put the camera where the eyepiece would normally go, slew to the object of choice, and seconds later see the object in great detail and often full colour.
It is also great because more than one person can enjoy it at once, and glasses and exit pupil size and eye-relief etc. become non-issues.
It is wonderful to point towards orion and see the purpley goodness rather than a hazy grey through the eyepiece.
It has little of the time consuming, delayed gratification of imaging, and most of the immediate, shared response of visual, without the letdown of hazy, faint images (except for you 24" owners) and you can do it all with an ED80, a video camera and a cheap screen.
It is loads of fun.
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