[g__day (Matthew)]

For the Canon Camera I would definitely recommend BYE - Back Yard Astronomer as a major step up from EOS utilities for camera control. Alternatively look at APT as a great tool too for camera control and more.

I would posit the tools you can use should include:


1. Astronomy sky map / mount control suite - from free Cartes Du Ceil or CDC to the beautiful Stellarium to the powerful (and expensive) The SkyX. Suggest with these include ASCOM 6.4 SP1 (free) for gear interaction
2. Guiding - PHD2 (free) (or the more expensive MaximDL, or the free PHD from Craig Stark of Stark-labs.com)
3. Camera Control - APT or BYE for Canon / Nikon gear - may work with ASCOM cameras. For full camera control the SkyX has a camera add in - but it is pretty basic (but its automated gotos, shot, plate solve, correct pointing and re-point is fantastic
4. Stacking - DeepSkyStacker (free - get the 64 bit version - much faster) or CCDStack (expensive and complex)
5. Focuser control - tricky depending if you want to automatically try to temperature compensate, I do it manually with a Bhatinov mask at start of the night versus software that can do VSpline like FocusMax to optimise focus
6. Pointing Optimisation - MaxPoint (for MaximDL) or Tpoint for The SkyX (which will allow you to do plate solves and/or automated precision slews)
7. Mount Permanent error correction (PEC) optimisation - PEMPro v3 - from the CCDWare guys (nice to have - might use it 1-2 a year for PEC and as needed for polar alignment optimisation)
8. Telescope Collimation correction / analysis - CCD DIS from CCDWare (nice to have - only used it once)
9. Post Processing - major options - DSS and Photoshop, Pixel Insight, MaximDL
10. Observatory control - including full scripting of all gear - ACP (I wish - need quality gear to the point it can almost be run remotely to warrant this)
11. Remote observatory control or LAN / IP - VNC or RadAdmin
12. Automation / camera control - Sequence Generator Pro SGP (free)


I would say software that is must have - includes 1, 2, 3, 4, 9 and 12 in the above list - then 5, and 6 are great to have. The rest have diminishing return unless you have a dedicated set up and a lot of spare time!