It is not easily possible to make pictures in my backyard through a telescope because of the ever-present strong wind. So as an alternative I tried to make pictures just with the camera and lens. Some time ago I have built a small wedge with motordrive that, after it is polar aligned, compensates the rotation of the earth. On Friday January 29, 2011, I have pointed that guiding platform roughly North with a compass. The wedge was still at an angle of 12 degrees from a previous experiment. The alignment is not very critical because of the relatively short exposures.
With the Nikon D90 and the standard 18-105mm zoomlens I have made several pictures of the Pleiades.