[Outcast (Carlton)]

So, Monday night just past we finally had a short break in the weather so, out with my newly acquired CG5 Adv GT EQ mount to have a go at my first Polar Alignment & snap some simple pics from my piggy back mounted camera to see what the tracking was like...

It was a good learning experience; some silly mistakes, some impatience, some 'couldn't be bothered' but all in all a good learning experience.

Stupid stuff I did & shouldn't have done:
1. Noticed my azimuth peg was loose when I set the tripod up & didn't fix it up before putting the mount on.... azimuth adjustment was more difficult than it needed to be.
2. Used a handset with a suspect RJ connector; had just finished alignments & was halfway through calibration stars when the handset pulled out.. had to start from scratch... This made me frustrated & impatient which led to more issues.
3. After point two, I became sloppy with my alignments & calibration stars.. this obviously had a detrimental effect on my later processes.
4. Probably wasn't as precise with my polar alignment as I should have been.. I was sweating profusely (temp up here was about 32* at night with 87% humidity) & I'd just about had enough... more patience grasshopper.

The good stuff:
1. I did achieve a polar alignment & on spec, the results weren't horrid. Will require more precision & patience if I'm to get it to a decent standard.
2. Did manage to get some simple test snaps with my piggy back mounted DSLR; there are trails but, I was pushing exposure times a fair bit to see what would happen so, still got something out of it.

What will I do next:
1. Make sure I pay more attention to some of the little stuff. When I began taking more care with my alignments on my Alt/Az mounted LX90, the nights viewing became way better as gotos were more precise & I spent more time viewing & less time searching.
2. Be more precise with alignments, calibrations & PA; use a more suitable eyepiece for centreing stars. Then rinse & repeat to refine the pool of errors before settling in for test images.
3. Stop messing around trying to push the exposure lengths & ISO settings... I've already been told 1600 is the sweet spot for this camera so, pay attention Carlton!!
4. Limit my exposure times to sub 60 seconds & see what works
5. Maybe try a smaller focal length lense on the camera; they way it's mounted it's a bit prone to vibration with a 55 - 250mm zoom hanging of the front.
6. Work on my focusing...

Pics attached, focus is not spot on & there are definitely star trails but, they are consistent & seem to be in the RA tracking which, was where my largest number was after the PA.. Shots range from about 40 sec to 120 sec, ISO's between 800 & 1600, targets were Sirius (to the west at about 58* alt, M42 & Canopus to the South at about 48* alt). I took more shots but, there is some obvious vibration artefacts in some & the others don't really show any more or any less than these ones do...

Comments & advice are most welcome...

Cheers