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Fantastic John, how refreshing to see someone take this approach rather than the usual "Looks interesting, tell me what I need to buy"!
Because of the high concentration on the nth degree of excellence in astrophotography by those already on the treadmill, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that AP can be as simple or as complex as you like. Any camera & scope & mount will produce perfectly acceptable images if used to its limitations (and even beyond). Just a camera will!
As to why, yeah, you've covered a lot of bases there but there are many more reasons I'd guess. I like Trevor's personally - learning more about interesting objects & seeing things you can't see through the eyepiece (technical aspects leave me cold though, leave that for the geeks, LOL). I get a sense of wonder from all my (daggy) shots - that from my backyard I can capture photons from incredibly distant and astonishing things, not much different to visual observing but taken deeper. Baz's reply captures the spirit of it.
There is also something fundamentally human in creating an 'artwork', standing back, and saying "Wow, I did that!". Very few who start out would see themselves as becoming the next Ken Crawford or Damian Peach, but some might like to be admired for their efforts or achieve peer recognition, who knows. Maybe we're all in that boat a bit whether we admit it or not, another fundamentally human trait.
AP doesn't have to be about pretty pictures though - many on IIS submit their images to scientific programs which rely on amateurs because of the sky coverage they can provide (eg planetary images charting changes in atmospheric features). Others use their cameras to search for supernovae or novae, or submit CCD observations of variable stars to international databases. Then there are asteroid & comet searches, asteroid observations, occultations etc etc. So your astrophotography can have real purpose and make real contributions. But that's probably down the track a bit for one just starting out!
FWIW my advice would be don't jump in the deep end. Just have a bit of a dabble and then gauge what you are getting out of it before committing to the 'treadmill'.
Good luck with it!
Cheers -
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