[Cajundaddy]

Eric takes pretty amazing shots and this hobby is very challenging.

My suggestion is to start with your DSLR and shoot wide angle on a tracking mount (walk before you run). Get really proficient with pinpoint star images in gradually longer exposures under 50mm. There are pretty amazing photos that happen here and you can spend a full year exploring the universe wide angle. A sturdy tripod and wide angle tracking mount can be found for under $1k

Once you are getting fine wide angle images regularly, you are ready to explore the deeper sky and a 400mm F6 ED or equivalent will open up galaxies and clusters to you. This rig starts at around $3k and can go as much as $10k. Develop your skills at this level and then go deeper if you wish. Planetary AP is a very different approach to deep sky where you shoot video at around F25 and then stack and sharpen to get very high res results in post.

I did this for about 10 years back in the 90s with film cameras, a C8, and manual guiding. The gear today is so-much-better as are the results you can get.

Good luck!