I still don't have Big Bertha 2.0 ready yet--waiting on a 4" wide aluminum channel to arrive. But in the meantime, I have my small reflector mounted on the CI-700 mount, becoming more familiar with the digital setting circles.
The great struggle with exposures of more than a few seconds is that you have to get the polar alignment very exactly on target. This isn't easy--especially because the most exacting method--the star drift method--requires you to start the mount running, and see if a star drifts north or south, and adjust the polar axis alignment accordingly. This can take a while--and when it is fiercely cold (for an ex-Californian, at least), this isn't a pleasant wait.
Anyway, here are a series of prime focus exposures of M42, the Orion Nebula, taken at ASA 1600 for exposures of 18 seconds, 41 seconds, and 151 seconds, respectively. The little arcs instead of round little circles for the stars show that I still didn't have the polar axis perfectly aligned. It's still pretty impressive! Although the four stars that form the Trapezium are pretty well burned out into a solid mass.
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Saturn was, as usual, awesome, but I was getting cold and tired, and photographing Saturn is a bit more work, because you can't do it at prime focus.
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