Don't you just love it when stuff comes together.

[geppetto]

Probably my best astronomy day yet.

Did a final tweak to my 130mm F5 reflector and got enough "in focus" for the Nikon D40

to slot on at prime focus.

Did another carefull drift align of my HEQ5 head on the new pier.

Put up the new street light shield and lost the eye popping annoying orange light.

Stuck on the D40, pointed in a rough direction of M51 and took a 60 second test shot.

Here's the result, nice tracking and you can just make out M51 as well.

Lots of fun to come from this rig 8)

[refractions]

Looking good Need more images and stack `em.

[geppetto]

Need more images and stack `em.

Very true..

Going to make a cyclic timer to control the DSLR then

should be up and running for getting a good quantity of shots in stock

[Helen]

Nice shot! Can't wait for the proper stuff to start rolling...

And I know what you mean about things coming together.. very frustrating night the night before last when nothing would talk to anything else properly, and then last night it went really well and even the seeing was OK too. So just off to do some processing...

Helen

[MartinB]

Good progress Philip and tracking looking good. 60 more like that and you will have a stunner

[russ]

Excellent image Phil. Focus and tracking are spot on. And good detail in M51 already with only 1 image.

Russ

[centroid]

A very good result for a single-shot Philip.

With a well aligned and tracking mount, you should be able to comfortably push your unguided 'shots' to around 90 secs.

Even so, a batch of 60 sec images like that, stacked and aligned, will give some very pleasing results.

Look forward to seeing some more from that set-up.

Dave