BRICK WALL

After astro imaging for a number of years now, Ive now hit a brick wall.  The quality of my pictures is not improving and the culprit, I think, is that my focusing is not what it could be.  Now seeking advice from whom ever may have a tip to improve focusing with my present equipment, or what it would take to upgrade my current scope to improve the quality of images.

After talking to a fellow astro imager, who has far more experience and expertise, it was determined that the path to better images is through the stacking process, and to stack, the pics need to be in near perfect focus.  The problem now is; how can the camera and scope be adjusted to get better focus?  Below is some examples of the best I could do without stacking with my Meade LX 200 8" scope and Canon Rebel DSLR w/o the digital view.  Any and all advice is welcome.

By the way, I am aware that an my scope is not ideal for astro imaging and that there are far better cameras out there, however, before a whole sale (not to mention very expensive) change in equipment is done, it would be nice to get the most of what I have now allowing for minimal hardware upgrades.