[raymo]

Hi Jim, You're diving in at the deep end. I strongly suggest that you get
full bottle with unguided imaging first. For unguided imaging you need
to get your polar alignment as precise as possible. Your scope, having
a focal length of only 800mm will permit exposures [subs] of between
30 and 60 secs, depending on several factors. I manually guided for
over 40 yrs, and for film that was o.k. With digital most images are produced by taking large numbers of subs and then stacking them in DSS or other
freeware, so manual guiding would be pretty much impossible.
Some of the brighter objects respond well to single exposures, such
as bright globular clusters, bright planetary nebulae, or of course,
the moon.
I have attached an example of a single exposure, so you know what to expect. Omega Centauri, 45 secs exposure
with 200mm f/5 scope.
raymo