Hi Tom,
Welcome to IIS !
I am also quiet an Amature at this game but I've been fast climbing the learning tree breaking many branches on the way up.
I also have a Celeston goto. First question I'll ask is does yours have a wedge and are you polar aligning ? I had a nightmare of a time working this out and I'd be happy to share the solution with you.
Next up I hear you frustration with not being able to see anything through the finder. I'm using a 350d so live view isn't an option for me either. What I do is look at the object with a nice wide feild eyepiece. " goto " which ever object you'd like to photograph and centre it manually. Then go into your menu and select user objects and save user object. I even do a test run going to the user object to double check it is right. After that, go to a bright star and fit the camera. You should be able to see a blurred halo in the view finder. You should be able to see the star well enough to get most of the focus right from here. This is where the bhatinov mask comes in. Get one or make one ! They are a god send ! Once you have focus right, simply go to your user object and start your run of subs.
Don't get disheartened if things don't work the way you want to start with. Eventually things start to click and you'd be amazed.
Welcome to the game Tom. I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labour
