Mars buzzes the Beehive

[Hawklord]

Used last night mainly to try out my new autoguiding setup (that's another story!). Couldn't resist though to try and get Mars and M44 together. Taken with EOS 450D using an ancient Zeiss 300mm F4 lens: 11 x 45s exposures at ISO800 stacked in DSS. Colour has been lost a bit and the stars are a somewhat bloated from the lens.

[JCJC]

You must of got the autoguiding to work, the stars are pinpoint. Very nicely framed as well.

Thanks,

Jordan

[Hawklord]

I'd love to put it down to the autoguiding, but no, this was before I set up the autoguider. The mount can generally cope with up to 2 mins unguided. I took these images before trying out the autoguider. Good job too as I spent far too many hours afterwards getting the autoguiding to work. When it did after my basic erros, cold and frustration got the better of me! I'm noticing that some of my stacked deep sky are either too noisy (too high ISO I 'd guess) or not capturing enough data with 2 mins max. Thats why I need to switch to autoguiding. Now I 've got it sussed I can really get to work: Kit in trailer and off to the darkness of Dartmoor!!

[DarkerSky]

Good shot. Like that very much