re: #21 Randall Gross

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

My lens (not a kit, not a Canon, but…) will go down to 18mm; I have a shutter release but I don’t know if it’ll do timing. Need to check on that.

Building a star tracker could be an option, but my workshop here is limited. I have some very basic tools, but nothing like when I lived with my parents.

Sigh.