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Had more fun with the camera last night......M42 in all its glory. Wish the mozzies would go away though!!

14 x 10 second exposures, 20 dark frames and then some processing fun. Didn't use the filters as I'd rather have a play with mono for now.

Bought myself a StarShoot G3 Mono and finally managed to get a brief gap in the rain to use it (very brief). Below is my result of 11 x 3 second exposures, stacked and tweaked slightly in Photoshop (got lots of experimenting to do with image processing!).



Equipment used and processing:
SkyWatcher ED100 (4" refractor)
EQ5 mount with motors
StarShoot G3 mono with IR filter
Captured using Orion Camera Studio ...

Took the below photo using the iTelescope.net framework. Not bad for a small 80mm scope, definitely worth using this site if you don't have an astrophotography set-up.



10 minute exposure using scope T3.

To help with my sketching and object viewing for family, I've installed motors on my EQ5 mount. Really easy to do and they work well.

The only problem I encountered was that the motor housing on the RA motor was slightly protruding above the mounting bracket so I had to grind (with a Dremel) a small piece of the housing away for the gears to mesh correctly once the mount was screwed in. I've left the DEC motor detached as I figured I probably won't use this much and moving the DEC ...

I'm now in week 5 of my 6 week Swinburne University Online Astronomy Short Course. So far I can say it's a really good online course providing science and general information regarding the Universe, stars, the solar system and much more.

Definitely recommend it for people new to astronomy and wanting to learn some theory behind our Universe and objects in our skies. And the best part - you don't need to be a whizz at Maths or Physics!!