Good Stuff Brent.
There is so much to learn and refine, but it can only get better.
Have you thought of a Ha filter? From what I've read, RGBHa from light polluted areas shows promise. No substitute for dark skies, but you can't move the Obs, so your best bet would be filters and Ha even with dslr's or OSC's can add detail to suitable targets.
How about dew? Here in Melbourne, its a huge pain.
As for focusing, a 10:1 focuser goes a long way and rather than focus through live view, best bet would be focus with 10 or 15 sec exposures keeping track of how much you adjusted each time as well as with a Baht Mask.
I'm thinking of adding a reduction stepper to my focuser. I just ordered the Long perng 11:1 low profile focuser from Andrews and I have this already,
http://australia.rs-online.com/web/p/products/351-4647/, so will just add a simple wireless stepper controller driven by a picaxe in a small battery box.
I just bought Alignmaster and for me, that really works and gets polar alignment done quickly and accurately.
Look forward to the pics.