So...I've been out practicing with the polar alignment routine... after 3 rounds last night, Synscan reported Mel 21" and Maz 24". That was the best I could do. I found the altitude knobs especially difficult to operate with any accuracy getting this far. Alignment stars were Miaplacidus and Antares, and Antares was in the FOV of a 7mm eyepiece (about 290x in the C8).
With the scope parked, I added the reducer (0.7x, so about 1400mm F/L), rebalanced and took some test images with my 1100D and I've posted a stack of M22 in the Beginner's AP section. I was able to get 15s exposures without stretched stars. How much more should I able to eek out without resorting to guiding?
Haven't graduated to PHD yet
