Galileo's Camera

Facebook reminded me that almost three years ago I posted a crescent Venus. Coincidentally (or may be not so much, given the climate and periodicity of Venus as evening star), I had another shot of Venus compiled last week. And here we go: Venus - NexStar 4SE, Canon 550D in 640x320 crop mode and Celestron 2x barlow. While going through my shots, I realised that I have an interesting ensemble of Venus photos over 3 years: 6 Dec 2013 26 Jan 2014 25th Nov 2015 6th Dec 2016 Obviously the images aren't to scale. The 2014 image is a 2x enlargement after 2x barlow and 640x320 crop while the 2015 one is very likely to be shot without a barlow. Regardless, I am quite happy to stumble across these as it shows a clear phase change of Venus around the same time of the year. In 2013, it starts off with a crescent phase with 205 moving in to a half full. In 2016, it is in a waxing gibbous state. In 1610s, Galileo was the first in recorded history to observe that Venus

Owing to somewhat kinder weather, managed to have a small window two days ago for some astrophotography.Luckily for me, Orion becomes a good target straight from my balcony. M42, or the Orion Nebula is the first nebula that I tried to shoot. My first attempt was very unsuccessful and all I managed to get was a light patch that showed where the nebula was. This time I was determined to get something better. However, instead of using the 4SE for imaging, this time I decided to use the 100-400mm Canon lens while using the 4SE as a tracking mount. The results I should say are better than I expected. But I still have a long way to go. 22 light frames x 2-5sec + 10 dark; Canon 550D on 400mm telephoto lens   So far I have identified several problems with my astrophotography: 1. Unpreparedness Most of my astrophotography sessions are spontaneous. I am never prepared for those and don't have everything set up and calibrated. 2. Not the best equipment and  not using the pro