Well - I've had a modicum of success tonight! Whilst I'm still somewhat short of a viable Astropic, I'm certainly getting closer.

Tried out my Bhatinov mask first. It's now in the bin - a complete waste of time. Whilst I can see how it might be beneficial on a larger scope, with the tiny aperture of my Zenithstar, there was just nothing visible with the mask in place and the camera viewfinder leeching all the light away.

So instead I tried out the star trail focussing method - and I like it! I need a bit more refinement to get the focus just right (mainly because I forgot exactly where the sweet spot was!) but basically - I've proven the principle to myself - and here are some preliminary results!

I love this photo - despite it being little more than a curiosity, I think it's a beautiful demonstration of the rotation of the Earth. In case you don't know what's happening here, I have set my camera for a long exposure and intermittently covered and uncovered the objective lens of the scope. This causes the gaps in the star trails, which are in turn caused by the apparent motion of the stars (the main one is Vega) as the Earth spins on its axis. The apparent change in size is due to slight adjustments to the focus (1mm away or towards each time), with the thinnest line showing the finest focus.

 So here we are - the first legible apparition of M13 on my setup! I don't really count it as a proper Astropic yet as it is a single badly taken frame, but it's definitely improving. It's a 3 minute exposure with a hint of exposure added in Photoshop, but other than that it's raw. A bit more fine focus and a slight decrease in exposure (to take out the bulbous middle and reduce trailing), and I should be able to stack a few frames together and get something useable!

Same again but with a 5 min exposure.

All in all, much more encouraging tonight - I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. But of course, as is the sky's wont - the moon is brigtening and I'll be all washed out for DSO's for the next couple of weeks, so it's back to the armchair astronomy for now!