Hi All, well I finally worked out enough of the manual controls on my new Canon 40D to give it a try pointed up and see what happened.
Stuck it (plus 17-70 Sigma lens at F4) on a tripod with 2 sec timer delay, pointed at the only thing I could recognise (crux), and ran for 8sec exposure at 400ISO...or something like that, I fiddled about with a few settings.
Moon was nearby and the sky wasn't really fully dark...
Anyway, I was pleased to see it actually worked, well there's some spots and a bit of a tree - my daughter asked whether there was dandruff on my computer screen
who knows where it all might lead
cheers,
Rob