On 25^th July to 15^th August 2004 we had a family holiday to Port Alfred South Africa. At 33 degrees south latitude I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take astronomical equipment with me. Besides, our children did not have a large amount of baggage allowing all my gear to be taken without excess baggage charges! 

I took the AP400GOTO, Takahashi SKY90, ST10XME and my Canon D10. The site was a marina complex with good security allowing me to leave equipment outside for semi-permanent polar alignment, although being next to the sea meant I had to watch for corrosive elements and mini sand storms. It was South Africa’s winter with day time temperatures around 20C and 5-10C at night, but the skies were very transparent and clear on 2/3 nights. There was a little light pollution, but I estimated the zenith limiting magnitude to be around 6.0 with the center of the milky Way sprawling overhead – quite an awesome sight. We arrived at a nearly full moon, so I concentrated on H-Alpha imaging of Eta Carina and the Running Chicken nebulae and also imaged Omega Centaurus and Scorpio’s M6 and M7. As the moon gradually receded, I concentrated on wide field imaging with the Canon D10 and tri-colour imaging of larger objects such as M8 and the large magenallic cloud. 

One major problem I encountered was with my clamp to attach my Canon D10 to the AP400 mount. I overtightened the clamp on the camera and snapped the attachment leaving it partly in the camera and half on the clamp. I had to improvise and use many elastic bands to attach the camera to the clamp and wedge it next to the counterweight. Despite this, I still managed some decent widefield shots!!