Nice going Martin! I'm glad you've had time and skies to get out and give it a go. Don't be too hard on yourself. Its going to take quite a while to get a feel for the ins and outs of CCDs and LRGB as you've said. I was just saying to a friend today (Bender) that I frequently look back at pics from just a year ago taken with my DSLR and think "why did I do it that way?", then realise I had no idea about whatever it was back then (tracking, processing, polar alignment, ISO, exposure times, etc, etc). I'm actually looking forward to all these new challenges though, and the odd nice pic along the way would be a nice sweetner.
You've already got a nice desert there!