Hi all, last night turned out to be a real relief in Sydney after the clouds cleared up. Couldn't wait to try my new Orion ED80 and Q-Guider with PHD. I got the mount roughly polar aligned.
Actually I just took it out and matched the legs marks on the ground as close as possible. Too excited to get underway.
Started PHD and turned to M42. Did a couple of shots 10x1min no darks with Pentax *istD (noise reduction on ISO400) and guided through my main scope (Nexstar 130 SLT). The Orion ED80 has better optics I think and a very wide fov at prime focus so I cropped the pics a little.
Then I turned to Eta Carina. Couldn't really find it a first so I shot a couple in the dark until my batteries run out and I got only one shot of it 1x 2min ISO400.
Having never tried auto-guiding before I couldn't believe how easy it makes the whole process. Never going back. I've got some round stars now... Yay!
