Finally Back!

After a longish hiatus, I'm finally able to get back to the blog. It has been a very cloudy summer here in Indiana, with the coolest and wettest July on record. However, things seem to be getting back to a more normal pattern now.

Inspired by the many excellent images on the Yahoo PST group, I finally bought a driven mount for my PST, courtesy my Mom--thanks Mom!!!. It's an iOptron Smart EQ Pro and I am very impressed with its capabilities. Tracking seems to be "dead on" and my PST images from this point on will be captured from this mount.  I also deforked my ETX 125 and it will also be used on this mount as well. I'm surprised at how sturdy the tripod is--much better than I expected. iOptron support is  also first rate, so I'm currently happy with everything about this inexpensive little mount.

Here's a pic of the mount driving the PST DS on an imaging session this afternoon:

The pic shows the mount being powered by an external battery. The ASI 120MM and barlow are also clearly visible.