Many of the photos you see were taken with this setup: a Nikon 500mm f/4 manual focus lens, a Meade ETX 90 guide scope, and a Losmandy Celestron G11 mount. The lens sits in a cradle of my own construction and is firmly held against any flex. The ETX 90 is held by two 105mm rings. I use an SBIG ST-4 autoguider.

While my camera tracks the stars, I look for deep sky objects with a pair of Miyauchi 77i Exceed binoculars. The 45-degree prisms make it easy to view objects high in the sky. These binoculars also travel well and they've always revealed any Messier object I sought. I took this picture on March 10, 2007 at Harrington Beach State Park in Lake Church, Wisconsin.