I guess Jason what Paul is saying that your hardware takes the image, its there, but the skill of processing is where your data comes back to life. For me capture is about 30% of a image and processing makes up the 70%.
Though with 60 second captures, the effect of dropping the F# you will lose the nebulosity because it is a lot fainter than the stars, and just like in visual, if you want to see more increase your aperture. This is why better cameras and better lenses produce better wide field shots.
So what im saying is:
Increase your capture time to say 120 -180 seconds, making sure its guided
Be sure your focus is good
Quality of the capture is dependant on the hardware. $38 ebay lenses will produce about the same quality.
Use photoshop or something like that to introduce non linear curve adjustments.
Good luck
