Hi Shaun,
Everyone has provided great information in regards to starting off.
I would recommend you have a look through other's telescopes to get an ideal of size, complexity and ease of use. Other members have provided details of Astro meets that you can also go to.
In acquiring scopes I would recommend having a budget as others as mentioned and be aware that telescopes get pretty big and heavy 10inches and above. Portability becomes an issue, especially if you need to travel to a dark site or a location with less light pollution.
Astrophotography is quite an art and science combined with frustration and a fair amount of money required to get started. You will probably require an equatorial mount eventually to be able to do long exposures.
Different types of telescopes all have their advantages and some things they are better at - refractors, SCT or Newtonian(mount/dob).
I have found the researching quite a lot of fun
Regards,
Mel