Originally Posted by Siguy

Wow. Then you certainly have enough money for an
awesome DSO imaging setup!

First of all, you will need a nice equatorial mount. Preferably a German equatorial mount.

As for the actual telescope, you must realize that there are several types of scopes to choose from. Three basic designs are reflector (usually Newtonian), refractor, and catadioptric (usually cassegrains.) I use a catadioptric Schmidt-Newtonian, a design that is currently only offered by Meade on their LXD75 German equatorial. If you want to do dedicated deep sky imaging, then probably best is a small apochromatic refractor. If you want to do several things, catadioptrics and reflectors are the best all around scopes.

I really can't decide for you, though. The best thing for you to do would be to talk to your local astronomy club and get familiar with different types of scopes.

Basic elements to a deep sky imaging setup: German equatorial mount, main scope, guidescope, CCD camera for automatic guiding though guidescope or illuminated guiding eyepiece (rarely used nowadays), laptop to control mount and autoguiding software, DSLR camera or CCD imager, image processing software, you.

Also, whatever you do, DO NOT CHEAP OUT ON THE MOUNT.

If you want to go the old fashioned way, just get a huge reflector on a beefy mount and a manual guidescope, you'll be all set to go. :P