I paid $900US (secondhand 6months old) for an OTA from a guy from the US off Astromart. He delivered it to Utah where I had a conference. Brought it back with me on the plane.
Matthew, who runs "telescope and astronomy" here in Adelaide sells the Tal series. Here's the web address
http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com....telescopes.htm
If you're serious about astrophotography, I would just buy the OTA and get an EQ6 (like me) or a G11. The HEQ5 isn't too bad...ask Bert on here as he has the setup and has taken some wonderful pics using the Tal 200K
There are some reviews on Cloudynights about the scope and also there's a Tal Yahoo group.