I've not used it but Nebulosity runs on OSX and it can capture, stack, and process.
I've seen some great results from those who use it so it must be capable.
Nebulosity 3 is truly excellent for pre-processing, decent for capture (especially if you are working with a manual focuser and manual filter wheel - otherwise go with SGP), and fairly limited for post-processing.
You can have a go at the brightest Messier objects with the 8SE, but it is slow photographically, so the fainter ones would be difficult. The problem is that you are limited to fairly short exposures with it, as alt/az mounts
suffer from field rotation.
raymo
I'm also very wary of the expenses of imaging! I'm happy just looking for now!! Although I'm not getting much of that done at the moment, it's been so so cloudy here in Perth