I got home today before the sun set and after the moon had risen, so I headed outside with the telescope to see if I could figure out what had been my problem last night.   I left the camera out of the equation completely and just focused on getting the telescope to focus on the moon.   I was having absolutely no luck and starting to wonder how on earth they could sell a telescope that you couldn’t even find the moon with.   For some reason I decided to remove the star diagonal and just put the eye piece in its place and the problem disappeared.  I wasn’t to happy with the arrangement for the camera … a little less stable … and just two little screws to hold it in place, so I kept a hand under it at all times.  Most likely there’s a bit a hand shake affecting the images, but I’m calling this a successful next step.