Beginner and DSLR

Hi,
I'm new to the DSLR party, and would appreciate any tips n tricks you could pass my way.
I have a Nikon D80 mounted on a driven Orion Optics 8" f6 Newtonian, and I use either a barlow, a meade series 5000 telextender (3x or 5x) to get a bit closer to my subjects.
As it is I find my biggest problem is focus, though I am getting better at that and will get a crayford focusser before Christmas.
Is there any settings I should change on the D80? What do you reccomend for image processing and stacking, how many images should I take, can I automate that on the d80? stacking etc.

Would approeciate any links to online training/vids , or book recomendations etc.
Basically any titbits you have - send them my way if you have some time.

Attached a recent image, iso 640, on the 5x telextender.

Attached Image:

For stacking deep sky frames, I like Deep Sky Stacker. It is free, and easy to use:

http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html

For planets, Registax:

http://www.astronomie.be/registax/

To automate the D80, you could get one of these:

http://www.pclix.com/pages/pclix_main.html

The Pclix device is not cheap (~$200) but is very versatile.

If you want to have a laptop in the field, there is a variety of different programs that can control the camera.

Hello Martin,
The DSLR/barlow contraption is not well suited for single frame planetary photography. Single frames are problematic because (a) the mirror slap tends to shake the camera- and this shows when taking objects at high magnification (b) the atmosphere is very unstable and a single frame can end up taking a photo at a moment of instability (hence a blurred image). A webcam+barlow combination is much more suitable. Here you take a short avi video clip and use programs like Registax to select and combine good individual frames into a single composite photo. The results can be astounding.

Regarding focus, try pre-focusing on a star. There are lots of ways to do this. I personally like to use a Bahtinov mask.

Good luck!
Ivan