My new telescope and first attempt at processing

I pulled the trigger this evening and ordered an Apertura AD10.  I went with the basic scope, not any of the add-on packages.  I figure I can add flocking myself and springs, screws, and a knob can be found at the local hardware store or online for much less.  The secondary washers can be made from milk jugs.  I can also make a light shield myself.  As far as the eyepiece racks, I don't think I'd put the lower one on anyway.  I think it would risk getting dirt kicked into the eyepieces.  I can build my own leveling base and a setting circle can be printed and laminated at Staples.  One thing I expect I might buy is the Alti-Gauge digital level.  It has a nice red backlight, which will be useful.

I did order the Apertura 2" ED 2x Barlow along with the scope.  This will basically double my eyepiece selection.  I've also heard that using a Barlow makes laser collimation easier and more accurate.  We'll see how that goes.

I've also been playing around with some of the images I've taken previously with my original barn door tracker.  I found I did get a pretty good one of the M31 Andromeda galaxy region at 55mm.  It needs quite a bit of work on processing still, but here's a first attempt:

This was ISO 1600, 55mm, f5.6 on my Canon T3i with the stock 18-55mm lens.  It's a crop of about 1/4 of the full image.  I stacked 98 subs of 30 seconds each, 30 darks, 30 bias, and 30 flats in DeepSkyStacker.  I then played around with the curves and levels in GIMP 2.9.

I need to learn how to reduce the noise and gradient, bring out more detail, and bring out some color, but I think it shows promise.