Well... I decided to test my interest in astrophotography (I have a 'few' hobbies) by building a barn door tracker to see whether it would stick, or whether it's just a passing fad.
Big mistake! Now I'm totally hooked... and so I've ordered an NEQ6 + Orion Awesome Autoguider + plate for my dSLR from Bintel. A big investment for what amounts to a glorified camera tripod
(I have lots of lenses from 14 to 200 mm... figured I may as well take things one step at a time.)