M51 - SeeStar S50 18min

First time out with the telescope, the skyglow was so bad you could read a book by it, the internal filter handled it. RAW was off, - so the quality, without a flat, - so the corners are warped, it was cold, maybe that's why it's so soft, the lens heater was working. In slippers in the frost to set it up and take it down. Half an hour at home on a warm sofa and voilà. If things continue like this, the Meade will be sold without regrets, - we've seen enough planets. 6 years of messing around with it, hauling heavy gear, getting tangled in cables, and falling asleep waiting for the image. No, really, while dad was setting everything up, the kids managed to get a full night's sleep in the car. And in 6 years, the only night we actually managed to see the ghost of the dumbbell, I think we saw M27, and the faint milky speck of Andromeda barely discernible in the zenith. And to look at Uranus at opposition, we spent 20k on a lens, 10 minutes of squinting and used our imagination to give it volume. Never even got around to the camera, just hoping the kids wouldn't fall asleep. Not a single decent photo from the Meade.