Andromeda Galaxy...

Being next to the sea a clear sky can be deceptive. A shot, I also took last night, of The Pleiades looked awful. Sea mist made the stars look pink but a lot of nebulosity was apparent all the same.

Aye, similar problem for me living by a lake. Water evaporating from the lake can make things a little fuzzy, often there is a small cloud hovering just above the lake. On the plus side it does look lovely in just the right light.

GReat shot James.

The best time to image Machholz is at it's highest point in the sky which is around midnight. By 3am it will be very close to the horizon...

Check out the EAAS Machholz page below.

www.eaas.co.uk/news/comet_machholz.html

Clear Skies


MarKDJ

Still, I am impressed with how well the LXD75 mount and motors track with a quick visual alignment. I have been told that AutoStar coupled with the LPI can calculate how far off a true alignment you are by your declination corrections and then makes predictive corrections itself.

Does the LXD75 support autoguiding like that? Just curious as this was not a feature of the LXD55.

Cheers,
~Al

Still, I am impressed with how well the LXD75 mount and motors track with a quick visual alignment. I have been told that AutoStar coupled with the LPI can calculate how far off a true alignment you are by your declination corrections and then makes predictive corrections itself.

Does the LXD75 support autoguiding like that? Just curious as this was not a feature of the LXD55.

Cheers,
~Al

That's what I was told on one of the Yahoo LXD groups. The last time I tried guiding with the LPI I was still having problems with the RA motor but I did hear the smoother running Dec motor moving. I'll know for sure when I next take the scope out as I have fixed the RA motor.