ill put my 2c in, collimation every time is pretty much essential, even if you do nothing. Also the accuracy of your collimation tools is a massive point if your collimating with a laser sausage (GSO laser collimators)... well its going to be pretty much spot on ever time... so to speak.
You start looking at passive auto collimators (which may i add are very easy to use) and you will see that moving your telescope from under the patio to out on the lawn will alter it slightly. possibly not enough for visual to see, but talking Astrophotography 100% it will!
Chirs as for your astrophotography, well.... it depends on what your vision and reality alignment is like! To get reasonably good shots not just happy snaps starting with absolutely nothing ide say somewhere around 4-5k. some people pipe dream that 1500 dollars will give them APOD quality images.
but alass.
Things to think of when looking at AP
Mount- absolute minimum EQ6Pro/NEQ6
decent aperature/quality scope - Dob - 8" and up, 90mm up for refractors
Modifications eg, better focuser, better dove tails
Rings
Laptop - I use a eeepc 1000HD, 900mHz celron.. doesn't need to be a beast...
Software - Maxim DL, Nebulosity are 2 decent packages you pay for what you get
Correctors(field flattners)
power supplies- 80-100a-h is what you should get, and power supplies 8A does the trick
camera - contentious point... if i had my time again, don't bother with the dSLR, to much noise and alot of frustration. a small Cooled CCD sensor will kick you off. Decent data to work with and much better returns
My current kit is sitting about 5500 Though i have made alot of things by hand so add a good 1500 to that. on the up side it is actually pumping out high quality images with great resolution. look at my website if you want to see what i have and what its producing. if you want ask questions about it
The other thing is experience... you can only put a time price on that
im pushing 2.1/2 years and still know very little!
