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No Problems Ron, ask away. I will help however I can. I will try to answer your questions in the order that you asked them.
1. For focusing I use a bahtinov mask, with an F4 scope my critical focus zone is 35 microns, so getting accurate focus in not something I can do just by eye. These cameras have tiny pixels, 3.75 microns so if focus is even slightly off you will see it in the image. Even with an f5 to get critical focus you are better off using some kind of focus aid. Baht masks are by far the cheapest way. Also assuming your little scope is not an Apo you will get chromatic Arberition, (blue or red rings around bright objects), even when in focus.
2. No I didn't use a barlow. For want of a better way to explain, the smaller the CMOS chip the smaller the field of view. I think the chip on these is like 4.8mm x 3.6mm or something like that. My scope has an 800mm Focal length and that and the size of the chip is what determines how zoomed in your image will be.
3. These camera's are astro cameras, and as such are very sensitive, I cannot get a pic during the day either ( just a full white screen), as they are not designed for that. To check if your camera is in fact working, when you turn it on and get a white screen, cover the end of the camera with your hand or the bung that came with it, and everything should go black. Take it away and it should go white again. Just too sensitive to take day time pics even on the lowest setting. The only thing I can think of with the blow it, is either stray light getting into the end of the scope somehow, or your settings are too high. My M16 pic was taken at gain setting of zero and a frame rate of 75%. The frame rate here doesn't really matter as I was taking 200sec total exposures, so even on the lowest frame rate, it would still be several frames to make up each sub exposure.
4. Basic details for the finder mod, was unscrew the eye piece end and I had a spare 2" to 1.25" adapter that was a tight squeeze but fit in the end with no major problems, and that's it. Camera goes in the 1.25" holder and focus the same as you do with any finder.
5. Depending on the focal length of the scope you are going to use you will definitely need a barlow to do planetary work. When I look at Jupiter with my F4 it looks basically just like a star, that's how small it is in the field of view.
6. Test stack in DSS. These cameras are very noisy, I know it doesn't look too bad in the image I posted, but that's what proper calibration with darks, bias and flats will do for your images. The uncalibrated images were very noisy. Also Something else that helps with the removal of noise during stacking is dithering, which I always do.
Hope that helps a bit, if I didn't explain something properly, just let me know and I will try again. Astro imaging is a huge learning curve, so don't hesitate to ask questions.
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