MJ has just posted some amazing pictures with his kit so I thought I'd upload my latest shots.
Since I last posted I have had a couple of nights outside but as it doesn't get really dark until midnight I haven't had much success at long exposures. Practice is needed.
I had a night of stupid mistakes linked to new gear. Firstly I polar aligned on the wrong star so got trails which took me a while to realise why. Then, once properly aligned I got even more blur. After 30 minutes of checking everything I switched off, only to realise I had the mount at the fastest speed possible. Both rookie errors but both now part of my pre-picture checks! Every bad night has it's benefits. It also meant that I spent a long time looking up and orienting myself with the night sky.
Last night I struggled to get focus on anything and the light was a pain. I did manage to fire off some shots, all with soft focus though. Then when I tried to stack I got numerous "PC out of memory" errors so gave that up and try to process my best sub. All I got was this:
This is a 20 second shot looking ESE, 17mm at f5.6. Converted to black and white for the best contrast. I realise this is extremely wide angle but there is no trailing which before I got my mount this would have been an issue, even at this low exposure length.
What I "think" you're looking at is;
Directly to the left of the constellation is a satellite trail which is very dark. I think this indicates that either my ISO is too low or exposure time is too short. Also I'm away off my actual target of the Corona Borealis! Either way practice will tell.
Al
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