Hi all,
First post on Stargazers Lounge, though I've been looking at this site for quite a while.
I made an aborted attempt at astro-photography a couple of years ago, got a certain distance with it, but then gave up. Under lock-down, all the clear nights recently have tempted me to have another go. A couple of attempts in, and here's the first decent picture I've managed - The North American Nebula which is just starting to rise in the West.
This is taken with a Sigma 150-600mm zoom lens at 190mm mounted on an HEQ5 mount, and using a Skywatcher finder scope with a QHY5LII colour camera mounted on a side-bar for guiding. The standard Sigma lens foot is far too flexible for astro work, so I've clamped up the lens barrel with another lens collar to mount it to rigidly to the dovetail bar. At just 190mm, this arrangement seems rigid enough for tracking., and I managed 20*300s exposures before giving up at 3am.
Any comments/feedback or suggestions for improvement welcome.