M8 - first glimpses

Managed an hour under the stars the other night. Its been a few months, I almost forgot which way was north, haha. Set myself up to fail, no polar alignment, no guiding, no focus checks through my laptop ... thought I'd spend my time just enjoying the stars ... then Changed my mind and ran inside to get my camera. Here's my first brief, approx 2 min, glimpse at m8 ...

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I was going to say "long time no hear" but then I looked at how often I post an image (or not).
Well done for getting out and looking up.

Actually, that's not M8 (Lagoon Nebula). M20 Trifid nebula is the red/blue nebulosity bottom left and M21 is the cluster of stars upper right. M8 is out of frame to the left.

Pretty good for such short exposure time. Well done!

Bahaha, really ... ah yeah, my bad, thanks for the correction. I knew it was Trifid, just got my numbers mixed up.

Hey Steve, been a while ... hope all is well? Did you get to see the transit of venus???

Still finding it difficult to focus, as my clumsy hands have trouble with my 11: 1 focuser then screwing the locking mechanism without it changing focus. Would an electric focuser with better for me?

Yeah, I got a glimpse of Venus. Enough to tick it off.
I'm not familiar with that scope and focuser but the first things I would be checking are the tension adjustment (and that you don't have a battery grip on the camera). You don't have to crank the locking screw up much. Try it during the day so that you get a feel for how loose it can be before your camera moves when you hold the scope vertical.
If you don't have one, a Bahtinov mask would be a good (and cheaper) start. Then you can confirm your focus and see how much to move it to compensate.

How you are confirming focus? Do you have a Bahtinov mask, or just eyeballing it? What scope do you have? No point spending $300 on a Moonlite or Feathertouch focuser if your scope is only with that IMO. Do you even need to lock the focus? It may be able to hold your camera unlocked. Mine does. Admittedly it's a 3" FT focuser, but still, my camera is heavier than yours.

Thanks guys! Yeah, I have a Bahtinov mask though can't really see through my camera so well, so I usually use it with ther brightest star available while my dslr is connected to my laptop with live view. Will play with the tension, never realised I didn't need to lock it down all the way, haha, whoops.

My rig is: Orion ED80TCF on a heq5 mount, with orion guide scope on top, and usually canon 50d on the back. Also have a televue power mate 4x ... though this is even trickier to focus so usually only use it on the sun or moon.

Some people suggested getting a field flattener as some of my shots suggest I need it. Birthday in a few months so just working on my wish list ... haha.

Also, not sure I posted a link to my venus pics, again little out of focus, and shot through a fair bit of cloud:
http://sketchdigital.c​om.au/venus/