Advice needed!

[williamnohair]

Hi Everyone,

after quite a long time learning and spending money I have finally almost got the hang of taking deep sky images. Have managed to get polar aligned with the Astrotrac polar scope and use the DSLR eyepiece to focus although realise this is not the best method. Have purchased BackyardEOS for use on a netbook but find that only the brightest stars show up on screen so finding the Andromeda galaxy a bit hit and miss. So far have only managed to get a fairly decent shot of the pleides last night using the Astrotrac, Canon 1100 fitted with a Tamron zoom lens.Took five or six exposures stacked in Deepskystacker and have got close to what I am trying to achieve. My question is this:

Would purchasing a short tube refractor to mount on the astrotrac and carrying the DSLR behind it give me better results? Skywatcher do a couple of tube only for around £100 plus or there is the mini borg which I find a bit confusing. Or would investing in a prime lens be better?

Can anyone who has advice about the astrotrac help?

Thanks

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have moved this to the "mounts" section, with a copy link in the original, as I think you will get more responses that way