Beginning Astrophotography Questions?

By thinking about prime focus photography with a telescope, you are starting in exactly the wrong place: the most difficult, demanding, and expensive part of astrophotography. Start with star trails and wide field photography with normal camera lenses. Canon DSLRs are a good choice, but be sure that the model you choose is capable of full manual control and time exposures. Finally, before you spend a lot of money on hardware, spend a little money on a good book: The Backyard Astronomer's Guide by Terry Dickinson and Alan Dyer (Firefly). This has a long, detailed section on astrophotography, and the whole book is illustrated with fine examples of amateur astrophotographs. Terry and Alan are two of the finest astrophotographers in the world.