First images with new mount

[Ad Astra]

Hi folks,

I have a nice refractor (133mm f/12 Apomax) on a new Celestron CGE Pro mount. I've tried imaging before, but have always been frustrated with weak sauce mounts which couldn't hold my scope steady. The new mount is steady as a rock, and although I didn't do more than a rough alignment, I decided to try a few photos tonight. (These are my first astrophotos with this scope in almost 3 years!)

Weather wasn't optimal, a bit of haze and dodging the thin clouds forming here and there, and I didn't clean the eyepieces properly before doing eyepiece projection either, so you can see a few bits of dust on the image . I've been so anxious to try the new mount out photographically - I decided to try anyway.

The images were all taken on my Canon 5D, these are single exposures (nothing stacked), anywhere from 1/10th to 1/30th of a second, and minimally processed / cropped in Picassa before uploading them here. I haven't even gone through the atlas yet to identify what craters I've got. #4 & #7 are my favorites, I think.

Comments would be welcome.

Dan

[nightfisher]

very good, looks like that big frac is capable of some great pics

[Viv]

Nice ones - I do like number 4.