Lokifish

Afocal DSO shots, with a cellphone on an alt/az. I can hear the screams of "you can't do that" from here.

The SLT has N/S EQ modes like the rest of the Nexstar+ series. So it's just a matter of putting it into EQ mode and doing goto alignment. By default, it's tracking is pretty bad so even a webcam guider w/ 40mm FL lens makes a significant difference.

Thanks. I purchased the H-C for $20 (the fungus and finger prints on every optical surface came free) as a project. It's original purpose was to make a cheap table top telescope for my 4yo. The AP I did with it was more to prove a point. Heck, I didn't even shoot flats or darks for that image and lost a lot of data to compensate. Shooting under SQM 16.4 skies didn't help matters. But as a response to the often read "thousands of dollars", it performed well. Here's the wedge. It's definitely DIY and pretty basic. Heck, even the guider is a modded webcam hot glued to an old CCTV lens I had laying round. I think as a last hurrah I may do a proper imaging session and use the results as a lid insert in the carry case I plan to make for my daughter's telescope.

Well seeing you can't post wedge mounted fork images in the no-EQ thread, I'll leave this here. The only reason I did it was I was repeatedly told that long exposure AP can't be done on anything short of an EQ-5. This is first light for a wooden wedge carrying an SLT Alt/Az. So yeah, orders of magnitude lower on the pecking order than even an EQ-3. This was also done with no polar scope, finder, index marks, or drift alignment. 220s single exposure @ 400ISO (NEX-3) 62mm f/8 Houghton-Cass (AKA 2nd generation Sigma Ultratel 500/8) The Sigma has some pretty bad astigmatism in it's original configuration, so those weird shaped stars are more the lens than anything else.