Hey Nifty, good to hear from you. You're never too old to start, just as snipey said. And don't think you'll be buying scopes for decades, once you catch the bug you'll be looking at new scopes nearly every time you go online
An 8" LX200 would be a good scope to start with, and you don't necessarily need a wedge to do astrophotography. If you want to do some astro piccies, get yourself a good CCD camera, such as a Meade DSI II Pro or the normal version of the camera (DSI II, if you don't want to fiddle with filters) and a guidescope for your main scope. However, just starting out as you are, work your way upto getting to the piccie stage by learning about the sky and doing plenty of visual obs. Once you get a feel for your scope and the sky in general, you can then move on and try more advanced things. As they say, you have to crawl before you can walk
The most important thing with a new scope is that you enjoy using it. If you can handle moving it around and setting it up, then that's good. You have to be comfortable with your scope and enjoy operating all it's bits and pieces. I think the 8" SC will suit you well....it has good light gathering ability, is portable and will grow with you as you get experience.
