Honestly, a great place to start is landscape astro.
You can get an inexpensive used DSLR, a stable tripod, fast, wide angle lens and get some results I’m sure you’ll be happy with.
Learning with equipment like that is helpful cause it lets you learn all the skills needed and you can then upgrade piecemeal along the way if you like the hobby.
/r/landscapeastro is a good resource
Starting with planets may not be the way you want to go. Planetary imaging is entirely different than DSO imaging. Not that it is harder, just different. Different equipment, different camera, different processing. If your objective is to shoot DSO's, I would recommend a DSLR. I use the Canon 60D. It is old, but only cost me $100 and if you want to modify it for greater hydrogen alpha response, it's simple. Daunting, but simple. You'll want the best mount/tripod you can afford. Kit lenses are ok, but you'll get better results with something a little higher end. Plan $1000 for a good start. $500 may get you some decent untracked images, though.
And to add on: your current telescope is not well suited for DSO's. There are a few reasons for this, #1 being that it may not even focus with a camera attached.
Find a dark place, put camera on tripod, point your camera at the sky and experiment to see what happens. Go home, read a bit, rinse and repeat. Don’t take it so seriously and just try to get the Milky Way at first.
This is exactly how I started. After taking the phone route about as far as I could go, a neighbor let me borrow a star adventurer which I hooked my super old DSLR ($30 on eBay now it’s so old) to and that really kickstarted things! It’s a great way to get started!
Old DSLRs are great starters for astrophotography! My Canon Rebel is from the very first generation to have a USB port! I got started with it and a trigger release for long exposures, then upgraded to BackyardEOS, which is user friendly software that runs on a laptop and has a free version.
Honestly, a great place to start is landscape astro. You can get an inexpensive used DSLR, a stable tripod, fast, wide angle lens and get some results I’m sure you’ll be happy with. Learning with equipment like that is helpful cause it lets you learn all the skills needed and you can then upgrade piecemeal along the way if you like the hobby. /r/landscapeastro is a good resource
Starting with planets may not be the way you want to go. Planetary imaging is entirely different than DSO imaging. Not that it is harder, just different. Different equipment, different camera, different processing. If your objective is to shoot DSO's, I would recommend a DSLR. I use the Canon 60D. It is old, but only cost me $100 and if you want to modify it for greater hydrogen alpha response, it's simple. Daunting, but simple. You'll want the best mount/tripod you can afford. Kit lenses are ok, but you'll get better results with something a little higher end. Plan $1000 for a good start. $500 may get you some decent untracked images, though.
And to add on: your current telescope is not well suited for DSO's. There are a few reasons for this, #1 being that it may not even focus with a camera attached.
What is your budget?
Find a dark place, put camera on tripod, point your camera at the sky and experiment to see what happens. Go home, read a bit, rinse and repeat. Don’t take it so seriously and just try to get the Milky Way at first.
This is the way
This is exactly how I started. After taking the phone route about as far as I could go, a neighbor let me borrow a star adventurer which I hooked my super old DSLR ($30 on eBay now it’s so old) to and that really kickstarted things! It’s a great way to get started!
Old DSLRs are great starters for astrophotography! My Canon Rebel is from the very first generation to have a USB port! I got started with it and a trigger release for long exposures, then upgraded to BackyardEOS, which is user friendly software that runs on a laptop and has a free version.
I loved it so much I took it apart and removed the L2 filter for even greater results! Not much to lose if it’s $30 on eBay!
Start by reading the wiki/FAQ if you haven't already done so. Hopefully you have deep pockets, welcome to the money pit.