Getting a clear picture of a celestial object requires compensating for the Earth's rotation. To obtain this result, the equatorial mount is aligned towards the celestial pole and rotates in the opposite direction to the Earth. Unfortunately, this movement is not perfect: the mechanics of the mount induces more or less periodic tracking errors. It is possible to install an autoguiding system with a telescope and an additional camera, but this system makes the shooting more complex, and leads to an increase in the load [...].

Whether you are a photographer or simply an observer, balancing a telescope is an important step not to be neglected. It sounds simple, but in some cases it can be more complicated than it seems. This is especially true for Newton telescopes, as the weight is partly off-axis at the eyepiece holder. But this is also the case when you use a guide telescope parallel to the main instrument. Luckily, with a little bit of cleverness, even these cases can remain simple. . .

Capturing M81 took a lot of hard work. In all, Thomas Lelu accumulated light for 29 hours. 

But it was worth the effort, because all around the galaxy there are swirls of dust, located in our own Milky Way.