[masraum]

I feel like the most important part of AP is not the scope (but it is important). I feel like what I've heard is that the most important part for AP is the mount. But maybe these days with autoguiding that's less important. The mount has to track the rotation of the earth for long exposures. It's got to have as little slop as possible. If there's slop, then you end up with stars that aren't pinpoints because the thing moved around during the tracking. That motion will ruin the photos. Back in the day (15-20 yrs ago), the good mounts were about $1500. Maybe the mount that Eric mentions above and autoguiding has gotten around that price issue.