if you are starting out get the 80mm its really forgiving..get the Orion EON if you can afford it, if not the common or garden ED80 will do
you will get many many hours of enjoyment out of this..if you have a half decent mount-at the very least a CG5, preferably upwords.
you may not win many astro photography comps, but I assure you you can have great fun with this scope-and relatively less headaches.
As for focal length-even with an ED 80 you may soon find yourself imaging with a focal reducer to get a flatter field-unless you are a dead set galaxy fiend (I am assuming you are after DSO not planets) the wide field actually works in your favour, makes the whole process of image capture relatively less painful
The EON and the equinox are better mechanically and look much better (how well do you see in the dark BTW?
). Much sexier. More bragging rights. Possibly a better scope even. Eon users I found are very passionate about their scope ..annoy them at your peril.