A Perfect Moonless SkyClear skies again, this time without the moon. Amazing what a difference a moonless sky makes to viewing conditions.
I started trying to polar align my mount, and after nearly an hour, I gave up. North has quite heavy light pollution, which makes finding the pole star (Polaris) difficult. I need to read the manual before trying this again.
Had another go at Saturn, this time when it was much higher in the sky to reduce the effects of atmospheric disturbance (as suggested by Anthony from UKAI). I don't know if it made any difference; the focus was still poor. I also had another go at M42 in Orion, as this is (supposed) to be the easiest and one of the most attractive nebulae. I still need more practice, but it's a million times better than the first attempt! Then, I put the camera back on the tripod and captured some new constellations for the collection.
