A Spikey M45

[philj]

It was so windy last night I did not dare open the obs up so I set up my portable rig, HEQ5 Pro + 102ED, in the lee of the house where it was away from the high winds but still got a few gusts unfortunatley. It was nice to give the rig an airing.

The view restricted me to M45 so I set about as many 4 minute exposures as possible before the clouds came rolling in

I was guiding with my new Lidl 70mm scope nice and lightweight and had no problems with guidestars using the Mintron.

I experimented with cotton across the dew cap on the 102ED to get diffraction spikes but I think its too over the top on M45, I shall reserve this method for objects with less bright stars in them.

Anyrode, heres a windy, slightly cloudy, spikey M45 Approx 60 minutes at ISO1600 using the old 300D.

Phil

[MartinB]

Great atmospheric M45 Phil. One for the Christmas cards!

[Psychobilly]

I like the natural spikes with that one Phil

Billy...