Since the sky was clearer than average and everyone else had a go at Markarian's Chain, I thought I'd join in too. It went downhill from there.
Firstly I wasn't entirely sure where it was. Saw galaxies but nothing that looked quite right? How far out was I?
I was up there to start with and worked my way down in the end.
Tried using the Sigma 120-300 for the first time. It's overloading my mount. Wobbles like a wobbly thing that's wobbling. The first test shots have a funny vertical spike character to them. Fearing the optics were bad, I soon relaxed when I suspected mirror vibration. Switching into live view which disables the mirror fixed that. Phew!
I never had good polar alignment anyway, and 300mm was certainly showing up my weakness. I reverted to the old 135/2 and... it really sucks at full spectrum imaging with CLS filter. Even though I was using it on the unmodified 600D, I was getting a red halo around bright things. And it still didn't cut out enough light pollution so I had no depth to speak of.
It reminds me that I've considered my site as being really suitable for narrowband imaging only. So I can save a little cash and skip normal light pollution filters for whatever I get next.
Not a total loss. While I didn't get anything worth posting out of tonight, at least I know where to look if I get better conditions another time or place. Now, is there a big book of emission nebula I can look up?
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