Ah yes, nothing like first light with a new system, a mix of excitment, trepidation and nerves
Those squares around stars are not noticable in the Omega and Swan shot, they look like processing or jpeg issues to me..?
Hope you sort out guiding etc soon, as Peter Ward often says (and I agree) it's mount, mount, mount (which basically means tracking tracking tracking) before worrying about any OTA.
Mike