Maybe one opening comment. With all the right and best equipment and software, astrophotography is not easy. After my first year, I was ready to throw in the towel. So many things have multiple potential causes, it is difficult and frustrating to sort it out. And that's just to get a reasonably usable picture. Then there's the digital development, which if you want to get the most out of your pictures, is a whole other dimension about which there are multi-day seminars you can go to, and a number of books devoted exclusively to, And it's all changing as fast as the digital world itself is changing. In the few short years that digital astrophotography has been around, the gap between beginner and the top flight amateurs has become huge. So, back down, chill, and remember, whatever results you may get, appreciate and enjoy them, rejoice in YOUR improvements - and take some time to enjoy the beautiful and wonderful time you spend out under the stars.

This is the setup which I've been using since the spring of 2008. It is a good combination for astrophotography. It is a significant step beyond my 1st setup with the fork mount, stand alone autoguider, and 1st generation digital SLR. This most recent setup features a very high quality mount and autoguider, with a new camera twice as good in nearly every regard as the previous one. These three items were costly; the mount $6000, the autoguider $1500, the camera $2000. I had reached the limits of what I could do with the equipment I had, and this is what it took to get better. I've now been in this long enough to know this hobby is not a passing fancy, but is something I want to continue to work and improve on. I had accumulated many of the other items I need to move to the next level, so I felt okay about making this investment.

CAMERA: Canon Digital EOS 40D, modified for astrophotography, and with cables to connect to a laptop for camera control and picture acquisition.
Comments. Canon digital cameras with their CMOS's chips are some of the best DSLR's for astro work. Nikon also makes DSLR's suitable for astrophotography, but the Canon's have features that work particularly well. Only cooled chip dedicated astro CCD cameras can top them, - and you have to know what you're doing to actually get better results. In one shot, the latest DSLR's can give full color pictures of the faint fuzzies. As mentioned, this camera has been modified for astro, which increased the initial cost by ~50%. The original filter over the imaging chip, that is optimized to simulate what the human eye sees, has been a replaced by one that allows all of the red and blue portion of the spectrum to come through, including the hydrogen alpha and silicon 2 wavelengths which are of particular astronomical significance.

PRIMARY SCOPE: Meade 10" f6.3 SCT (LX200 "classic") model. The f6.3 model is no longer made but is occasionally available on places like Astromart. This is a naturally "fast" scope, which is a great advantage for getting adequate exposure of dim objects. However, that speed comes at a cost of coma (flared stars) out toward the sides of an image. Baader's Multi Purpose Coma Corrector (MPCC) does a great job of correcting this problem, making this scope the near equivalent of many of the coma corrected scopes that have started to appear in the last two years.
Comments. The resolution of this scope and Canon camera match each other almost exactly. The field of view of the two (42'x28' at prime focus) is a good fit for many of the most popular and pretty Messier, Caldwell, and other well known objects. The field of view is just a little small for full disk solar and lunar, but the best lunar are with crescent moon shots anyway. I use a separate refractor for wide field imaging.

WIDE FIELD SCOPE: (Not shown) TeleVue 101mm f5.4 refractor.
Comments: For wider field views, you need a smaller shorter focal length scope. There are a number of very high quality scopes that have come to market in the last few years. That has lowered the price overall for this type scope, and lowered the price of the older top of the line scopes that come up for resale.

AUTOGUIDER: SBIG's ST402 camera, on Orion f5 100mm guide scope.
Comments: Guiding is needed for long exposures. This guide camera is considered one of the best. It has a cooled chip and integrated RGBC filter wheel, and so can be used for imaging as well. The main reason I bought it is because it can be integrated into a fully automated imaging session. That means that if I set all of it up right, I can get some sleep while my equipment does the work of image acquisition for me. Interestingly, regarding the guide scope. it is a cheap, light weight, wide field scope barely suitable for even low power observing because of noticeable chromatic aberration. However, the SBIG guider doesn't care if there are bluish halo's around guide stars. light gathering power and wide field of view matter more, and the mount appreciates a lighter load. This cheap guide scope delivers on all three important points.

MOUNT: AstroPhysics Mach1 GTO German Equatorial Mount
Comments: At $6000 this was a huge investment for me, but it delivers. I tried various others at around half the price with good press and loyal followings, but this is the one that consistently delivers in all axis of motion, and in every other aspect of it's operation. It exceeds all it's published specs for accuracy, load carrying capacity, and smoothness of motion.

FILTERS:
Comments: I use just 4, and really only one 90% time. If I'm taking images of galaxies or star clusters where all the colors of the rainbow are given off, I often don't use any filter, and I shoot as near the zenith as I can. If there's a lot of light pollution or I'm shooting nearer the horizon I use the IDAS LPS filter. Among all the light pollution filters I have used, I find it best filters out most of the commonly offending light pollution wavelengths, enhances the astronomically significant ones, and yet retains the most "natural" overall color appearance. This last point is the one about which most of the other similarly advertised filters fall short on. I always use this same filter whenever I image nebula, which generally glow only in specific wavelengths. This filter passes nearly all of them, again with a natural overall appearance, rejecting the common light pollution wavelengths.

WEIGHTS AND BALANCING: Just as info, the cheapest place to get counterweights is at your local scrap metal recycler. The price of scrap stainless or any other steel is about 1/3 what a purchased equivalent would be, not to mention shipping costs for 30 or more lbs of weight. You do have to find something suitable, drill out a proper center and put in some means of locking it in place. If you don't have the time or tools to do this, the commercially available ones are worth it.

FOCUS CONTROL: JMI digital readout microfocuser
Comments: exact focus is as little as +/- a few thousandths of an inch. Fine control is necessary and impossible (imo) to achieve with the course focus knob that comes with the scope. I bought the digital readout version that can be controlled from either the pushbutton interface, or can be connected and run with a computer. This was one of the key ingredients necessary achieve good focus, and to be able to operate this whole setup remotely or automatically.

DEW CONTROL: Astrozap dew shield, and Kendrick dew heater
Comments: Needed for my part of the country (upper Midwest) and my style scopes with their front corrector plate or objective lens.

GLARE CONTROL: Dew shield and custom field stop improvements
Comments: Glare control helps improve contrast, especially if the moon isn't set, or there are local ground lights, or general light pollution.

IMAGE PROCESSING: ImagesPlus, and Microsoft's Photo Editor
Comments: necessary for post production processing. ImagesPlus allows camera control and image acquisition to laptop, as well as having many necessary astrophoto specific image processing features. Microsoft's Photo Editor comes free as an add in to MS Word. It's surprisingly simple and useful photo editor.

POWER: In my observatory I have utility power, but if I go remote, I use 2 of 22amps for 150 minutes rated deep cycle batteries, plus various power connectors and cords, and a smart charger.
Comments: if you go to remote locations, get as large a deep cycle battery as you can carry, and get two of them. The biggest mistake beginners make is having too small a power supply to run their equipment for a night. An adequately sized power source lasts longer (more charge-discharge cycles) before wearing out, and will be able to power your scope and all your accessories, including dew heaters, autoguider, focuser, mount, camera, and a laptop for an entire night – including the early evening setup time. A "smart" charger is needed, because it can more properly recharge a battery, thereby significantly improving the number of charge/discharge cycles as well as recharging each time to the highest level. I use two batteries. One for steady loads that require stable voltage, such as the mount, camera and autoguider. The other battery is for loads that may switch on and off, such as dew heaters, laptop power and electric focuser. I quit using the standard deep cycle lead acid batteries and went to the sealed maintenance free lead acid gel cell style. Yes they're expensive and don't have the same listed capacity per pound, but they simply last 3 times longer, have no maintenance, can be tipped over without consequence, can be discharged more deeply without penalty, and hold their charge far longer.

SKY CHART: Software Bisque's TheSky software
Comments: Necessary on a number of levels, including scope GoTo control; matching what you see to what you get; locating objects; finding out what's up there tonight or whenever; as a library and encyclopedia and note keeper about the objects.

EYEPIECES: wide field varieties
Comments: Several good wide field eyepiece, with one about the same field of view as the field of view of my camera. It is simply of interest to also SEE what you photograph. Also, it's handy for assessing and framing what your camera will see. The wide field varieties are just cool to look through because they're a lot like looking into the sky, through the power of your scope. I have found the Hyperion line of eyepieces to be a good choice for me. They have good eye relief (18mm), have a wide field of view (68 deg), good color correction, good price ($129), and lend themselves easily to eyepiece projection photography.