[xa-coupe (Jeff)]

First post..yay me.


Dipped my toe into astro during the lockdown, pretty competent with a camera yet I'm going nowhere fast. I have graduated from a 70-200 lens (canon gear) and a portable rotator type mount (Polarie brand... it sucks but it's borrowed) from which I get reasonable pictures to a Saxon 900mm focal length telescope and it is all going haywire.


I have always struggled with getting my polar alignment right, even with the 'shorter' focal length but 200mm is a bit more forgiving than 900mm. I have to use the telescope as a big lens because during the day I can use the various gadgets to connect the camera to an eyepiece but at night, I get blackness no matter what I do. That's another problem for another day.



As for setting the mount to south, I am using an EQ2 mount (with motor attachment), but I align the main body of the mount to south ( using an Iphone compass) and dial up the degrees until I reach roughly the latitude (37 and a bit degrees) It still trails a little bit at any exposure than can produce a semi useful picture, even at 12500 iso to reduce the exposure to a minimum. Everyone seems to have a way for setting their celestial pole but I can't get it right.



Being in Melbourne I get a shortish period where there's no cloud so I am trying to get this sorted so I have something to show for all my effort.


I've attached a moon pic to prove I am not a complete loser with a camera, only a partially complete loser!