Observing: Moon & Jupiter

First time out with the Antares 127mm since I upgraded the focuser to the GSO Crayford. A 9-day old waxing gibbous Moon was the target, and the scope did a fine job with the Minus-V filter in place. So nice, in fact, that I decided to grab the camera and see whether the new focuser helped with the focusing problem I had last time I tried to do some imaging. Alas, it did not - once again every shot was out of focus at the edge of the frame while the center was in focus. This occurs using with the MaxView DLSR adapter and a 40mm Plossl eyepiece mounted to the diagonal, which I think is the same combination I used previously. Next time out I will try it without the diagonal, but I don't think it will make any difference. Oddly, I don't notice any focusing issues when observing visually. I should also try it with the TV85 just to see whether it can be narrowed down to the scope or the imaging chain. But not tonight, I'm tired and don't want to stay out late screwing around in the dark with expensive toys.

Cropping away all the out-of-focus stuff, and I got a pretty good shot of Copernicus, Eratosthenes, and just between them, the faint outline of Stadius - a "heavily flooded crater with incomplete low walls" (Rukl).

I was going to pack it in and started dismounting the camera when I saw Jupiter begging for attention. Slewed the scope over and snapped a few shots, none of which really can be confused with Christopher Go's work, but hey... I tried. Here's the best of the bunch, with a little post processing in Aperture and Fireworks:

OK, so if you squint it looks a little like Jupiter...

Lessons learned:

• The new Crayford makes it much easier to focus, but I really need to get a grip on the two tension adjustment screws.
• The 40D's live view makes focusing a snap, especially being able to see a 10x live preview.
• Something is terribly wrong with my imaging chain. Need to sort that out before it gets cold.
• Aligned the Sirius on Arcturus, Nunki and Alpheratz, all three pretty far from each other. Very good GoTo, at least near 0 deg declination. Had to hunt around a bit to find M13, though. Is this a leveling issue?
  
• I want a C8.

Oh, I almost forgot - the EZ Finder Deluxe is the nuts! It took longer to find the Allen key needed to align it than it did to do the actual alignment. I wonder if ScopeStuff or somebody makes an adapter that will let me mount it on the TV85, so I can 86 that infernal Starbeam finder once and for all.

Update 10/9: I squeezed some semi-usefulness out of another out-of-focus image: