Shipmate

Would a moon or coloured filter help?

Nice shot. What do you mean by '200p?' An aperture of 200mm? The image is upside down to me. 🐵 Much light pollution where you are?

This conversation has me worried. I live in Australia and in the cities light pollution can be a problem. I live near Perth in Western Australia and can see the Milky Way as much as I like. I just hope we can get people on the planet to actually see a dark sky and demand the overuse of night time lighting for buildings and street lights be stopped. There is an international organisation fighting for less light pollution,

Its all good! I went to a nationwide hardware store (Bunnings) and found the right screw. So I bought the box of 24 and when I got home discovered that the missing screw had actually fallen into an open small screwdriver box! Not lost at all which will explain why I could not hear it rattling anymore!

I've been a member of an astronomical society here in Australia since 1999. In the last few years I have devoted my time to astrophotography finishing with a 8" OTA on a Celestron mount with StarSense and Canon 80D DSR - like Mike. At 81 I decided that I'd rather be in my warm house than outside in the cold and feeling tired. So I sold all my gear and bought a NexStar 4SE. Couldn't let it go altogether! 🐵 I had the same problem as Mike and followed the advice to tighten the Alt bolt. But managed to lose one of the cover screws somewhere in the innards! :o( At first I could hear it rattling around and tried to coax it out but it has stopped rattling and seems to be lost forever. Is this loose screw likely to cause any damage as I slew the scope? As its only a cover I will replace it with just the two remaining screws unless I can find a correct replacement screw. (I have slewed it on the workbench and seems to be OK in Alt and AZ - so far!)