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Hi Jethro,
Choosing the right kind of scope depends on knowing what you want to do with it, and selecting one that is optimal for that. Otherwise you'll probably realise you bought the wrong scope.
The Meade ETX scopes have a very long focal length and are f/15. Great for photographing the sun(with solar filter), moon and planets, but f/15 is too slow to photograph much else (stars, nebulae). The drive is designed for tracking for visual purposes (to keep a planet in the field of view) but it is not adequate for long exposure photography, more than a second or so. For the solar eclipse it would be fine.
To photograph starfields, nebulae and galaxies you need much faster optics - no more than f/7 and ideally f/5, coupled with an equatorial mount known for good tracking such as the EQ5 or EQ6 types, PLUS an autoguider - this is a small telescope and a CCD imager that optically senses a few guide stars and provides signals to the mount to precisely correct any drift.
Many here use DSLR's by taking several short exposures a few minute each, and stacking them to reduce the sensor noise in the camera.
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