I was planning on trying to pick up the moons anyways, since it's just darn cool on its own - but good idea on using that to establish orientation of the imaging train.
I'm certainly keeping in mind that capturing banding may simply be impossible for my scope, especially with U so low in the sky, but I'm definitely going to keep trying. The optics on my C6 are excellent, and I've detected close doubles at or below the resolution limit of my scope - and that was with a DSLR.
I'm hoping the ASI224 can help my scope stretch its legs a little bit more. Though I may have to wait until next year for better skies to tackle U again.