The C6-NGT and Astrophotography Take 2

On this night I decided to try image two targets.  One that I could clearly see with the telescope and another that I couldn't.

This round, two things were different:

1. I spent the time ensuring I had a better alignment.  It took a great deal longer, but the results blew away my first shoddy attempts at taking pictures with this gear.  Instead of doing a simple two-star alignment with an additional calibration star, I did a two-star with several calibration stars AND I performed Celestron's All-Star Polar Alignment routine.
   
   Assuming the All-Star routine really works (which is evidently does), it's really amazing how far off my mount was in pointing to the north celestial pole.  I don't have a polar axis scope, and given other amateur astronomers feedback on the All-Star routine it looks like I may not really need it!
   
   On a good night, the alignment routine will take me 15 minutes.  This is a far cry from the 45min+ needed for a good drift alignment.  I also assume it's not as accurate as a carefully applied drift alignment.  Regardless, the All-Star routine gave me one minute exposures with virtually no trailing.  Maybe I was just lucky!
2. I bought a bahtinov mask from Farpoint Astro.  This took all the guesswork out of focusing and as far as I'm concerned, is a cheap no-brainer accessory to add to your imaging toolkit.  I couldn't imagine focusing without it.  I first tried to make my own, but I eventually decided that $18 bought me a piece of equipment vastly superior to what I could make.

The Easy Target

M92, a globular cluster in Hercules is nice and bright in the eyepiece.  You can easily see it in a short exposure and is therefore easy to locate and center.  You don't have to spend hours imaging and processing to discover that your target is being clipped accidentally.

M92 - Globular cluster in Hercules.  4 x 30"

The alignment is definitely better, with little to no trailing.  However, evidence of coma clearly shows around the edges of the image.  Darn newt.  Well, maybe when I get better at this I can look into a coma corrector.

The Hard Target (for me)

Caldwell 34 -- the Veil Nebula in Cygnus -- is a DSO I can't see from my home with my telescopes, although I have seen it in my 10" newt at a dark(er) site.

I only took one sub of the Western Veil (30 seconds at ISO800) and at first glance I could see nothing...

C34 - Veil Nebula in Cygnus

... but it's there!  This was my first face-to-face with a DSO that would need more subs, a longer exposure and heavier processing to draw out the details.

Here's a Photoshopped version of the same image to help draw out the nebula: