Getting started and first image

[badgers]

Dear SGL,

I've had my scope a couple of weeks and thanks to a lot of information on this site its been good fun

and despite all the LP I've managed to see plenty of interesting things.

All this has generated a number of newbie questions.

1) I assume its best to store the scope separate to the mount and remove counterweights from the mount ?

2) Warthog's stickied thread about eyepieces suggests getting a 2x barlow and 8mm, 18mm and

25mm SPL eyepieces for an f/5 reflector to start off with. The supplied eyepieces look and feel pretty cheap.

I'm blown away by all the different makes and types and can budget around £70 per eyepiece if its decent.

Can anyone suggest a good brand for SPL eyepieces for my f/5 scope ?

3) The 2x barlow I got with my scope is This one.

Is it any good ? Should I consider getting another one or go for eyepieces/filters first ?

4) How much difference will a LP filter make ? I'm observing from a fairly light polluted town (Cambridge).

5) I'm not sure how great my scope is setup, or the quality of the supplied eyepieces with the scope.

M31 looked like a very faint smudge in the centre of my view at 150x with most detail seen from inverted vision.

The Orion nebula looked great and Jupiter shows banding (see below) but not too much more detail.

(My first imaging experiment, with DSLR, 2x barlow and 70 short ISO800 exposures stacked (lynkeos).

Is this about what I should expect ? I know that darker skies and a bigger scope always help but I'm wondering

what I should be able to resolve with my kit and plenty of persistence. Hoping to get try a bit of DSO astrophotography

later on when I know what the hell I am doing and can afford a motor and a better mount.

Anyway, thanks for any help in advance, and I'm going to try and get out to a darker site this week for more practice.

Badgers

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Skywatcher 150P Newtonian f/5

EQ3-2 Mount, manual tracking

Canon EOS 40D