Nostalgic yet interesting comparison.
Apart from the clear advance in technology (your today image is better than the best effort one could take with the Siding Spring Schmidt on plates) another important thing to notice is that.. we are getting old
In 1984 I took my first image of the sky (I am just a bit younger than you), fixed tripod, color slide (a Kodak 400 asa, don't remember the name, the fastest I found), 50mm lens f/2.8 and a Nikkormat body borrowed from my father (that was I believe already 20 years old at that time). Target was Orion, from my backyard. Well, when I got it back from the lab and projected on the wall, I spent hours in awe admiring the little pinky smudge of m42. I still believe that the emotions those first images produced (along with some few one more that followed as I home-built my first barndoor tracking device) cannot be matched even by the best result I could get today with my current equipment (or even larger)..
That is nostalgic
Cheers
Marco