Venus, Moon & Jupiter with GRS

[MGTechDVP]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday the clouds decided to part and stay away during the night so I had to take to opportunity to play with the scope.

I started by taking a few shots with the 7D of the crescent moon and Venus setting in the west, I thought they were interesting so I thought I'd share.

Later in the night the seeing conditions were quite poor but I did see the GRS on Jupiter for the first time ever (I was starting to suspect that it wasn't real), so apart from the image being a bit soft, I quite happy with it since focusing it was like focusing through water.

I attempted to do some PHD guided long exposures on M42 and the Horsehead nebula, I got a very faintly visible horsehead but I couldn't do longer then about 5 minute exposures, I started to get streaking like star trails on it even-though PHD didn't lose the guide star, I'm pretty sure I was quite well polar aligned, so if anyone has any ideas what could cause this, please share the knowledge.
Needless to say I have nothing worth uploading from of last nights M42 or the HH.

Mariusz

[michaellxv]

Very interesting shots indeed. I particularly like #5 with the moon behind the tower.

[MGTechDVP]

I though it was a interesting combo.. bit soft due to motion blur, 6 sec exposure at 400mm.