Nice image Paul but you still need to put a little more into getting your focus better. Focus is noticeable with both the dust lane mottling and the diffraction spikes width. Great effort. A bit more exposure would also make a world of difference.
Yes I took this photo before I purchased the focusing mask. My method now is to use live view and focus on a bright star. I mag the live view to it's largest multiplier and use the focusing mask. I seem to get better results but still things aren't perfect.
maybe a bit of noise reduction and sharpening and she'll pop.
