Creating a lunar imaging rig

[osbourne one-nil]

I have two lovely scopes for deep sky photography. The trouble is, of course, the weather is so bad that both are very under utilised. However, it's dawned on me that lunar (and I suppose planetary) imaging allows short clear spells to be utilised and inspired largely by some incredible lunar images here and on Astrobin, and remembering how the Moon fascinated me as a child, I'd love to get into some serious imaging of it. 

Despite reading endlessly on here, CN and watching YouTube, I have two main questions. 

They revolve around whether I can simply use what I have, or should I get a dedicated scope/camera, and also whether I stick with my EQ mount or would an alt-az actually be simpler?

1. Stick with what I have?

I'll discount my 81mm refractor, as I do know that aperture is very important in terms of resolution, but I do have an 8" f/4 Newtonian. I also have an ASI290MM Mini. If i used a x4 Barlow, that would bring me up to f/16 which is about x5 the pixel size of the camera. Would that extra aperture be of benefit compared to something like a Skymax 180 at its native f/15? I suspect I'd get a camera with a bigger sensor, but for the sake of comparison, let's go with what I have. 

If I did use the Newt, should I still run with a coma corrector or is the narrow field of view enough to minimise any distortions? I have a Corrector PH which actually reduces by x0.95, and an Extender PH which increases focal length by x1.4. Both might actually preclude using a barlow as their optics are quite close to the sensor. 

2. Alt-az vs EQ

I have dabbled in a bit of lunar before but actually found using my EQ mount very awkward. I'd polar aligned using the internal polar-scope rather than the ASIair Polar Align function as I was in a rush) but once I did get the Moon into the field of view, my brain could never quite work out which button on the handset was up, down, left or right. An alt-az mount seems more intuitive in that sense. But an EQ mount doesn't have to deal with image rotation and perhaps with a compound scope, it's easier to figure which way things go rather than with a Newt where the camera is on the side?

Thank you for any advice!