yep managed to do a nice newbie shot, man I love this hobby, although the mount is now really trying my patience. anybody think CGEM better than eq 6? or should I just save for a G 11?
Thats 1 only another arrrrrrhhhh few thousand to go before you change you tune to "why did I ever start this hobby"
First up Graham, make or buy yourself a BT mask. Makes life sooooo much easier for focusing. How do you have your mount setup? SBS or OU (over Under) for you imaging scope and guidescope? And what are you using to control your guiding?
got a cheap 80mm Orion piggybacked onto a 100mm refractor. That was unguided as try as I might I just can't seem to crack the PHD guiding. I have a starshoot autoguider linked via GPUSB, I think it's my alignment as I can get stars and do the calibration but after a minute or so of guiding it starts flashing and bleeping at me and then the guide star moves out of the green square. And when doing drift alignment I have a hell of a job trying to actually adjust the mount , the altitude screws in particular are a nightmare to adjust. Doesn't help when I don't really have any low-ish altitude stars all around- I have house to the south, trees to the north and east and mount wellington to the west! I have got one of those cheap pvc bahnitov masks but it keeps falling off! Need more velcro I think. Do you use it on a bright star first then slew to your target? (hoping focus doesn't shift at all!)
If you are using the Starshoot autoguider part of your problem is you are using a GPUSB. The starshooter is a stand alone unit.
with your azimuth adjustment, loosen the main nut under the tripod head just a bit and once you've got your polar alignment tighten it and then recheck. It shouldn't have moved much. Certainly not enough to worry short FL autoguided images around 5 min or so
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only another arrrrrrhhhh few thousand to go before you change you tune to "why did I ever start this hobby" 
