[Ex Finn.]

With my guide scope, 60mm

I missed the "guide-scope" part.

[Ex Finn.]

I tried the venus shot with my 120mm f 7.5 refractor, pretty dissapointing, maybe I would have better luck with a 300 mm telephoto.
M 42 turned out little better, the K5 high ISO rocks. I wonder how well the astro-tracker would work with a 900mm FL telescope.

[krp]

I tried the venus shot with my 120mm f 7.5 refractor, pretty dissapointing, maybe I would have better luck with a 300 mm telephoto.
M 42 turned out little better, the K5 high ISO rocks. I wonder how well the astro-tracker would work with a 900mm FL telescope.

Your Venus shot looks better than mine. I have concluded that the moon (and maybe the sun) is the only object I can image through my telescope without a tracking mount. This was taken last night at prime focus through a 90mm f11 refractor with my K-x:

[zambonikane]

Another trick to sharpness is to stop your lenses down one stop. Most lenses tend to be a little sharper when stopped down. On an unrelated note, here is a stack of 47 45s shots of M51 I took last night. This is a fun, but at times frustrating hobby!

[Stone G.]

I tried the venus shot with my 120mm f 7.5 refractor, pretty dissapointing, maybe I would have better luck with a 300 mm telephoto.
M 42 turned out little better, the K5 high ISO rocks. I wonder how well the astro-tracker would work with a 900mm FL telescope.

I don't think that your Venus shot should be dissapointing considering that

1) you only have had 900mm FL to do with. For Venus you would normally need eypiece projection to get an effective FL of at least 2,000mm and up to 10,000mm when it is furthets away

2) Venus is always essentially a featureless disk due to the heavy clouds that always cover Venus' surface

3) Venus is always fairly low in the sky, where atmospheric seeing is worst. Thus, stacking is more or less a must to get clean pictures

It looks to me a that you have got a very fine telescope, as the image of the core of M42 also shows.

[Ex Finn.]

This would be much more fun with a computerized EQ. mount. I`ve done the EP projection bit, not very easy with my AZ-EL mount.
My 2.4 second shot of M42 resulted in nice color and brightness with some considerable star trails. I think I stick to moon-shots.

[Ex Finn.]

Your Venus shot looks better than mine. I have concluded that the moon (and maybe the sun) is the only object I can image through my telescope without a tracking mount. This was taken last night at prime focus through a 90mm f11 refractor with my K-x:

Nice moonshot.

[oneeyedhawk]

Ex Finn; Your venus shot is quite good Because venus is so bright it is easy to over expose. As you can see it is in its half moon phase the crescent phase is actually the brightest phase.Cut down the exposure time and then stack about 10 frames and see the difference. Your Orion shot shows the Trapezium stars A,B, C,D. This shows your scope is doing its job and your focus is good. Orion Nebula is very tricky to photo. Expose to long and you have to much nebulosity and no Trapezium. There are 10 trapezium stars but only two more you can expect to grab E,F. (both about 10th mag). There are other named features in the Orion neb. Like the fishes mouth,that can be missed on long hi resolution photos. Many photos of Orion you see in books are taken with several different parameters and overlayed in Photoshop to show all the features in one shot. The Trapezium has always been a test for the optical equipment you use. Frustrating and fun.
Hank

[oneeyedhawk]

Here is one i took that includes the running man nebula but the trapezium is washed out. Used a stellarvue 102mm ed scope
Hank

[Ex Finn.]

Thank you for the tips and advice everyone.
Here is a 2.5 sec. shot. ISO 10 000. Does not take much to get trails.

[oneeyedhawk]

again another this taken with the astrotracer 30 sec and at 300mm with the da 55-300mm zoom, single shot

[Ex Finn.]

again another this taken with the astrotracer 30 sec and at 300mm with the da 55-300mm zoom, single shot

That is pretty impressive, nice shot.

p.s. looked up trapezium, learn something new every day.

[Gimbal]

again another this taken with the astrotracer 30 sec and at 300mm with the da 55-300mm zoom, single shot

Nice, now take about 10 more and stack them. it will be stunning.

[GWARmachine]

Orion!
Pentax K-5, Sigma(apo hsm2)70-200mm@200mm, f/3.5 ISO 800, 83 second single exposure. Tracked with AstroTrac.

[Ex Finn.]

Yes sir, nice shot. I tried stacking, not for me. So, anyone try astro-trac with a actual telescope?.