Good advice given already. A few extra observations:
Keep in mind that the performance of the tracking mount is crucial. You could obtain good results with a modest scope, or even a regular camera, as long as the drive mechanism keeps track of the sky motion very precisely. So focus your research in that area first. A large part of the financial effort should go towards purchasing the best tracking mount you could afford.
Secondly, if you live in an area with lots of light pollution from a big city, the results are probably not going to be very good. Dark skies are another crucial factor to astrophotography.
The telescope itself is not that crucial, however odd that may seem. As long as it's not a piece of junk, as long as it's decent, and built with astrophoto in mind, it will probably do okay. More aperture (diameter of the objective) is generally good, but then a too heavy scope may overload the mount. Mounts are rated, among other things, for the maximum load they can support - don't exceed that.
The camera, again, is not that special. Many people use regular DSLR bodies, lens removed, mounted directly on the scope (prime focus photography). That should be enough for pretty good results. After a while you could graduate to dedicated CCD cameras, featuring active cooling and so on (although in your climate forced cooling may not be that important, lol).
Finally, keep in mind that astrophoto is tricky, it's not a cheap hobby, the learning curve is not very forgiving, and you will probably make a number of wrong decisions at first. Keep researching, refrain from impulse-buying a lot of stuff quickly, take your time and make sure you understand what's going on.
P.S.: If you have a digital camera already (doesn't have to be a DSLR), you could build a DIY tracking platform, just to see what happens when you do long time exposures.
http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/52
That may clarify a few things for you before you go ahead and plunk down the money on expensive gear. You could test light pollution, you'll get a feel for the challenges imposed by precise long-term tracking, you may start experimenting with "stacking" the photos using DeepSkyStacker or similar apps, etc.