It is about your personal journey Dave, because quite often it can be a lonely hobby. It's hard to find takers to share your interest late at night in the cold! There is though, something nice about the solitude and for some, it's an opportunity to get away from it all and life's distractions.
If your shot was taken on a static mount then your result reflects the 500 rule pretty much. I imagine, even with your 0.5 focal reducer, this would still be over 1000mm in focal length.
That means you wouldn't want to go over 2 secs exposure to keep the stars near round. It's fun trying things out beyond the normal procedure and you've proven you can still achieve a reasonable result doing that. Thanks for sharing that journey.
