I think your M83 is very good and your Bug Nebula top buddy.
I have read that PHD article as well, and for me the keys are
1. Calibrate at each part of the sky, change subject?, unless its within a few degrees then stop guiding, stop programme. restart and calibrate near your target. Change the exposure to suit the sky but if you haven't calibrated in 15 steps then it isn't working.
2. The Tools drop down menu is a great guide, go to tools enable graph and see how close you are to aligned. If you get a nice EEG looking small bumps around the same axis then you are winning.
3. Don't worry too much about this. It's supposed to be fun right!
Keep em coming!
PS background darker, if you suffer from light pollution use a CLS clip in filter and take stacks of darks and flats, gets rid of that gradient.
Graz
