[Mickoid (Michael)]

Clear skies on Saturday night beckoned me back out to the location one and a half hours drive from Melbourne where I tried my first attempt at the Leo triplet. I thought I could improve on the last 13 x 90 second subs and aimed for 70 subs.

I achieved this but ended up with 56 due to tracking errors. It was a warmish night and I noticed increased noise from my modded Canon 550d's sensor after viewing some of the subs. I continued on and did get an image (cropped) that was an improvement on the first, so it was worthwhile.

After the Leo Triplet I slewed the scope to an area in the Virgo Cluster to see what ended up in the field of view. As this was an extra afterthought before I packed everything away, I only took 4 x 90 second subs. Both these constellations are fairly low in the sky from Southern Victoria.

For the remaining time before the moon rose I headed for the zenith and jumped to M83 and took 5 x 90 seconds (slightly out of focus), so I refocused and moved over to Ngc 5139 and shot 5 x 45 seconds, then finally to Ngc 3372 and took 10 x 45 seconds, all at 800 iso.

Despite the temperature causing increased noise, it was nice to observe and photograph in shorts and T shirt knowing that in a few months I'll be clothed to survive in the Antarctic!

All shots were unguided through a SW Esprit 100 on an HEQ5pro mount.