Hi Jameson,
I see that I didn't answer all your questions.
When there is no good star in the center of the field to focus on I move the telescope around until I found a good star. I use 3 to 5 seconds exposure and stay at about 80% level (20% from the saturation point) when in perfect focus.
I haven't got the auto focus to work very good yet. I think I need to focus on more than one star to get better statistic. But that isn't easy and my software can not handle it.
I have today added the important torque calculation, at least for those who have heavy equipment. See the bottom of page:
http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/...box-ratio.html
Do you get yor focuser to work as you want?
/Lars