It seems the best seeing is just before a big storm. Tonight was also first light for the new Accufocus :)

The nights are painfully short and warm at this time of year, but I was able to bag M27 :)

Its been a while since the last update - due mostly to the fact that its been cloudy up til now :( Still - managed to bag M51, a better M57 and a few sunspots :)

I've bought a new Autostar controller and treated myself to an Atik-2HS camera and some RGB filters, initial imagery is promising!

Bern from Modern Astronomy was kind enough to try and fix my dead autostar, but no joy. Looks like I'll have to buy a new one :(

At least I'm catching up on my Iridium Flare collection, added Iridium 29 last night streaking through Ursa Major

The Autostar controller is dead... my GP-DX mount is nothing without it's heart! It looks like I may have to fork over £100 notes to get a new one... :(

I did manage to grab a -8 Iridium flare last night, but with the thin cloud that was up there it looked more like a -4.

Because my new Autostar controller has died on me! :( Whilst it's off for repair, I have managed to get a few wide field constellation shots and a montage of the two day old moon.

Because I scooped a full moon, M13 and M57 tonight :) I did have the camera on M44 but for some reason only one of the images out of 32 taken were on the CF card.. not sure what happened there!

I *finally* managed to get a clear sky last night, I managed a fairly good imaging run of M3 which can be seen here :)

I've been on the spend again, I've picked up some new kit:

A Vixen GP-DX mount and a Helios StarTravel 150 - magic :)

Well the LPR got first light tonight - whilst it does give the image a blue hue this is much easier to remove in Photoshop afterwards than light pollution. It only cost £50 from Bern at Modern Astronomy too :)

Mounting the blighter was tricky, in the end because the 300D needs to be focussed a long way in I had to mount the filter in reverse - I'll post pics tonight.