April, 2014: In 2011, I purchased a Celestron Nexstar 8 SE Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a Canon T2i Digital SLR camera. I started taking astrophotos by replacing the eyepiece with the camera in the star diagonal. I figured out how to creatively connect the camera to an 8-24 mm zoom lens eyepiece for close ups of the sun, moon, and planets.
Over time I've replaced the star diagonal with a flip mirror that allows a more direct connection (prime focus) to the telescope. I now use a 0.63 focal reducer for wider field photos, started using autoguiding to get rid of star trails in longer exposures, and upgraded the alt-azimuth mount that came with the telescope to an equatorial mount, the Celestron Advanced VX. This improved pictures that were suffering field rotation.
I have tried processing with Celestron's NexImage software, Registax, and Nebulosity; all require investments in time to learn and re-learn. Editing software started out with Google Picasa, Canon Zoombrowser, or Kodak printer photo editing software. Now I have settled on Nebulosity and Adobe Photoshop Elements.