First Light with HEQ5

[m37]

Spent a good few hours last night faffing about with my new HEQ5. Starting to get the hang of it though I need to sort out the OAG thingy.

After many false starts and lots of mistakes/starting from scratch I actually managed to get it polar aligned (using Alignmaster) and tracking pretty well.

On my old AZ GOTO I could get 20 to 30 seconds if I was lucky, after aligning the HEQ5 I was getting 100 to 120 seconds with very minimal trailing and absolutely zero rotation.

Obviously there's still a long way to go before I get those longer exposures but it is a start and I hope guiding will work out for me. Very happy with the mount, the difference between my AZ GOTO and the HEQ5 is absolutely amazing. Totally different build quality and functionality. So much still to learn but I'm pleased with the progress so far. Had the OAG in place which I think accounts for the odd halo shape and little spikes.

Only managed to get 4 light frames that were usable which I stacked quickly in PS.

[baggywrinkle]

Isn't progress nice...sky's the limit...