A poor workman blames his tools

On the other hand, one gets better results hacking at roots with an axe than with the edge of a spade, and a bowsaw cuts a lot better than the little rip-saw on your Swiss army knife ... I picked up a 50/1.4 lens on ebay, older than me and of a build quality suggesting it could shrug off light artillery fire, and a quick set-up on Castle Hill gets me pictures like this

(666x1000, so I haven't embedded it, and shrinking it rather loses the clouds-of-stars effect).

I'm imaging from the top of Castle Hill stars that the most eagle-eyed couldn't see with the naked eye from the top of Mauna Kea ... the sodium glare is the limiting factor now. Also the tripod shakes slightly in the wind, but this can be avoided by waiting for a clear night when there's no gale blowing.