Last weekend I spent three days at the Merritt StarQuest. The weather and skies were absolutely beautiful! Luckily I brought enough clothes because I wasn't really expecting the huge temperature swing that we had. During the day the high was around 35 degrees but by 2:30 am the temperature was down around 5 degrees. Asides from the night time lows, the skies were brilliant. The Milky Way was so bright it was often a distraction from the rest of the sky. I can't wait until next year! Hopefully the weather will allow for more nights of stargazing!
The first night was largely used in polar aligning my telescope, setting up my autoguider and in general getting ready to observe. I was quite frustrated with my autoguider, which I'm now planning on replacing. Fortunately a friend of mine had an extra autoguider that I was able to test out which worked quite well. After much cursing and frustration I finally managed to get a few decent pictures.
This is a composite of 4 five minute shots of the milky way taken with an 18 mm lens on my Canon rebel xTi. In order to avoid star trailing the camera was mounted on my HEQ5 tracking mount.
North America Nebula
This is 8 five minute exposures through a TV85 taken with a Rebel xti.
Pleiades
3 five minute images through my TV85 with a Rebel xTi
