First (proper) light with new mount

[m37]

Hi all

Not been dropping in here for a little while as I have been working on getting my new mount up and running for weeks in between a lot of cloud and rain.

Going from my little AZ to the HEQ5 has proved really challenging but I have persevered and last night I finally hit the magic setup routine, everything seemed to fall into place and went from 30 second exposures on the little AZ to 3 minutes unguided on the HEQ5 and I think I could have pushed it a bit more.

This is my NGC2281 which is by no means particularly awesome and the brighter stars are well over-saturated but they are the roundest I have got so far and that was my main aim. Hardly any post-processing required for 10 x 3 minute exposures at a nice low ISO400 (I used to rely on ISO1600).

I have an OAG and a potential guidecam candidate in my DKM21 but after a little play with them I have put these away until I can consistently set up, polar align and track for 2 or 3 minutes unguided.

Hope to post more soon. I am so chuffed, this is a really great mount.

Christoph