@obsolesce Thanks! That scope is a tad bigger than the one I use for viewing, but should be just as easy to setup. Celestron makes a pretty robust mount for a smartphone to take pictures from something like that.

Obviously this will depend on the COVID situation where you are, but find a local astronomy club and go to one of their star parties, then you can look/use several different scopes and figure out which one might be a better fit.

Also, All of the astronomy resellers have really knowledgeable people and are more than happy to answer questions to help you get started.

Most of the images I take (except for really bright objects like the moon) are imaged over several nights and I'm layering 60 - 100+ pictures to make it. For my photography setup, it is a smaller scope so it is a larger field of view of the sky, it has a dedicated astronomy camera on it. I've never actually looked through my photography setup with an eye piece, I just have a computer sitting out with it controlling the mount, focuser, filter wheel, and camera. Its a time consuming process.

If you are wanting to get in to some of the longer astrophotography stuff, the cheapest way to start is with a DSLR, a lens and a star tracker. You can take some pretty incredible wide field shots with just that.