re: #1 klys

I would really love to figure out how to do astrophotography, but there are probably more investments I need to do in equipment before it’s realistic.

You can do some homegrown wide angle astrophotography with an SLR, and a wide angle lens. (the Canon 18-55 standard kit lens will work, but there certainly are better ones out there.
you need a decent timer / shutter release (There’s an official name for the device but I can’t recall it right now.. amazon.com )
and you might want to use a Barn door star tracker that you can build:
google.com