Meade DSI Pro rookie question

I recently acquired a Meade Deep Sky Imager Pro (monochrome) with Autostar Suite and RGB/IR filter set (won it at the BFSP). I own a Vixen GP mount that has been hypertuned, but with just an RA drive, though it would be easy to add a dec drive. On the mount is a 6-inch f/4.5 Newtonian. I would like to attempt some deep sky imaging, starting with monochrome and eventually "graduating" to color. I have a couple questions borne of my ignorance regarding this camera:

Does one have to guide? IOW, can exposures be kept short enough to obviate the need for guiding?

Can I set it up to simply acquire images and use some other software to stack and align them?

If I do need to guide, then can Autostar be made to work with the Vixen drives?

Any and all advice is welcome.

Thanks,
Doug

Doug,

With the F/4.5 you should be able to take 30 second shots and "combine" them in Autostar. You can select 1 or 2 start alignment in the "live" window and the software will do it's best to align each shot.