First proper Astrophotos: Orion nebula and Andromeda galaxy

Seriously impressive for someone who's not been doing it for very long.

Drift alignment (DA) is a method of correcting small misalignments of your mount by tracking the path of a target star over time and using the alt and az adjustment knobs to minimise drift.

There are lots of how-tos published on the net (some of them very unclear IMHO) on how to do it manually. A reticle eyepiece or camera can be used to determine the path of the star-drift. However, if you want to save yourself a lot of time and effort I can recommend Alignmaster ( www.alignmaster.de/ ). It's software that automates the process and is very inexpensive.

Thanks Martinus, much appreciated. I think for the beginners equipment that I have, I was fairly impressed.

Oh. I will look up that software. Would this benefit even if I have a guidescope? I'm sure my guidescope setup would perform admirably if my polar alignment and levelling is perfect.

PHD makes corrections as the star moves out of position. The closer to ideal the alignment is, the smaller the corrections necessary.

How this relates to real-world performance with an LXD75, I honestly can't say.

From a mechanical perspective, the alt-az adjustment knobs are a major weakness of the mount design and you may find that adjusting one set moves the other. Alt is particularly infamous for shifting due to flexion in the bolts and the non-orthogonal contact between the end of the bolt and the mount body.