Hi Duncan,
Great start with the dob photography
You can get some nice results with shorter exposures particularly with the brighter deep space objects
In my experience sticking to 20 seconds was the most stable for good snaps. Although I could probably have used 25 secs comfortably...
I would use iso 3200 most of the time and some times iso 1600... I experimented with 6400 but wouldn't recommend it. 20 secs @ iso 3200 was the sweet spot for me.
Also don't forget to take atleast 10-20 darks.
Process after stacking.
are you using a coma corrector?
Keep up the great work
Rusty
Ps I was going to attach some pics I had taken on my dob but manage attachments doesn't seem to be working. if you look on my flickr page you will see plenty - although note the more recent ones are on my eq8.