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John for AP buy the best mount you can afford, the telescopes are secondary when on a budget. A million dollar telescope on a 2 dollar mount will produce rubbish but reverse the equation and you may get something useful. For DSO work you will need to sort out some guiding options and there are many out there and they all have good and bad points. The easiest way is to mount a guide scope but unless you do this correctly (e.g. rock solid) you will suffer from flexure = oval stars. Off axis guiders are a good option to prevent this but are a pain to use as it can be a problem finding a suitable guide star, setting it up to focus exactly the same as the imaging camera etc etc. None of this is easy and even small changes to equipment can lead to major learning curves as well as an element of frustration. I think the DSI is a good first camera as it is easy to use and makes a great guider when you move on. A fast refractor is the way to go when starting out as they are far more forgiving of guide errors. The little meade 80 is pretty sweet at F6 as are the synta scopes and are not overly expensive. The slower cats (meades, celestron, GSO etc) will challenge your patience until you get the hang of things so are best left alone. I think you are on the right track with the G11 (goto gives you a lot more options) and this will give you lots of room to grow. I would suggest a reasonable quality 80 - 100mm refractor with a focal ratio no greater than F6.5, your orion guide package would be suitable and a small camera like the DSI. When you have more funds move on to a bigger camera.
Cheers
Mark
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