AAron,
Glad to hear you sorted the issues out and it was only the eyepiece. Chris Venter in Victoria is currently selling (or had) for sale a 5mm Vixen LVW eyepiece.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ead.php?t=3593
This eyepiece is ideal for your needs. Native it would give you 100X and barlowed in your 2X Orion Shorty Plus would give you 200X. The eyepiece native would be excellent for medium power views of DSO's and also lunar and planets. This is an excellent quality eyepiece with very sharp views across the field and has 20mm of eye-relief. The differences between it and other premium eyepieces by Televue or Pentax would be difficult to detect. If money is not an issue then look at the 5mm Nagler T6 or the 5mm Pentax XW, these are both superb eyepieces with the Pentax offering 20mm of Eye-relief.
I would be looking hard at the Vixen LVW that Chris is selling, its a great eyepiece at a great price and perfect for your scope and needs, new these are over $400. Be aware however, that it is a large eyepiece for a 5mm, so your scope would need to be adequately mounted.
CS-John B