Hello, complete noob here. My son (17) is getting interest in Astro photography... primary interest seems to be moon right now, buy planets and deep space object as well. He asked for a Celstron Nexstar 5Xe. That seems simple, but limited without much growth room.
My assets are
Nikon D90 (I read that these have quite a bit of noise)
Nikon D7200
18-200mm Nikkor lens, 70-200 Nikkor Lens, 100-300mm (or close, not in hand) old non AF lens
1980's Celestron 8 Orange tube (no rails and no motors of any kind, just tripod and fork mount)
Note: I do not/cannot convert these cameras at this time IR filter-wise. That'd be a future purchase.
From my limited research my plan is to
Use the existing cameras and tripod for some moon photography
Purchase a Celestron Advanced VX and use this with the on-hand cameras for some DSO
At some point convert the Celestron 8 to work with the Celestron VX (with above cameras mounted.)
Consider another telescope now that is not redundant with the C8
I'd like GoTo and tracking. And primarily focusing on photography.
Questions
Does this plan make sense?
Will the Celestron Advanced VX work well with the listed cameras for DSO (and future cameras with IR conversion or dedicated cameras)?
Will I be able to use the old Celestron 8 with camera mounted with the Celestron advanced VX?
Is there a telescope that would make sense to also purchase for that mount that wouldn't be redundant with the Celestron 8... more starter level to get going (the C8 is in another family member's hands)
Should I be looking at a different mount? All the same questions apply for that mount.
Other things I should be considering?
My goal is to get started without getting too far into it yet in case the interest doesn't go too far once all the work is evident, yet not waste money on equipment that is limiting. I mean, maybe the Celstron Nexstar 5Xe with camera mounting makes sense???
Thank you for any direction!