Pork_Nocker

I should of course have typed Polaris. I have Capella on my mind from trying to fix a headphone amp that is called Capella. I have a Besser photo mount, and my camera is a Panasonic G90, which is fitted with a 35-100mm f2.8 zoom. The weight of the camera plus lens is within the 2KG limit of the recommendation from Besser. The link at https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/darv-drift-alignment-by-robert-vice-r2760 is very helpful and I hope to try it out as soon as I get a clear sky. It has been raining and it is expected to be cloudy for the rest of the week.

I am forced to use the drift method alignment from my back garden due to a neighbouring building being between Capella and me. So I have been practising the drift alignment method. I have however ran into a problem, and no amount of googling has provided me with the answer. so I am hoping that someone can help me out in understanding what could be the issue or what I could be doing wrong. The problem that I am experiencing is that the objects in my viewfinder are drifting backwards. i.e. they are slowing disappearing off my screen on the lefthand side. There is no drift upwards or downwards that I can detect thought. The drift is slow enough to allow me to take a picture of up to around 4 seconds without the stars looking out of shape. But at 10sec or higher, the drift is quite clear. Does anyone have an idea or suggestion for me to try?

Thanks for the starter Craig. Freedom find. I like that term. Going to do a search on that right away.

New poster here, and in desperate need of informed advice on a mount/tripod combination. But first a bit of background info, so that you have a better idea on which direction to point me to. I am looking into taking pictures of stellar objects that crosses the sky above where I live. The local street light was a sodium type bulb that cast a orange glow over my garden, and bounced off the walls of neighbouring properties. It was a waste of time trying astrophotography, except of the moon. Especially since I use cameras, not a scope. So no chances of trying out astro type filters. But not so long ago the local Council replaced the street light with an LED light. That has improved the accuracy of the visibility tremendously. But I am also close to a railway line, so the ground does shake from time to time, even in the middle of the night. Taking into account all of the above, I started looking for a decent tripod/mount combination that might be able to handle to terrain conditions. That includes quick dampening or absorption of ground shake. Due to limited visibility from city lights compared to the great outdoors, a goto mount would be an advantage. However, looking at pictures of the say the Skywatcher EQ35, everything on that goto mount is electrical. I don't see any way of making manual adjustments without having to grab the controller. So I am looking for a goto mount that can be manually moved in both the horizontal and vertical position. The latter is to give me the option to quickly move the head to a different location manually, instead of relying on the motors. I did come across one on the internet, but I forgot to bookmark it for reference. For some reason I keep thinking that it was an EQ5 that had been updated with a motorized system. The setup will be used for astrophotography using a camera. I am not thinking of a telescope at this stage. I have put my spending limit for the mount, dovetail, battery pack, etc at £700 max. But now I need advise on which mount to look at... Any takers?

First time poster here. And a great site it is that you guys have here, so I decided to join and learn from the advice from others about how to tackle astrophotography. I was born in the Amazon jungle, and as a kid enjoyed looking up to the sky amazed at what I could see. But when I moved to the city I got involved in other activities. One of them was photography. But when the kids arrived, that took a backseat. I got back into photography in 2015 and quickly ended up spending a small fortune on cameras and lenses. Then one day I saw a picture of the Orion Nebula in a thread one one of the forums, and my interest got triggered into how that picture was taken and processed. I quickly found out that I didn't need a telescope to take pictures of the moon and many other stellar objects out there. But what I did need is a good tripod and head. So I did invest in an expensive head and tripod. Great for moon shots, but of no use for the accuracy required to take long exposures for anything else in the sky. And that became an issue. Lockdown has made me evaluate my photography. All that expensive gear doing nothing. So I decided to have a proper look at a far better tripod with motorized drive etc. And that is what brought me to this forum. I am also into hifi on a professional level, especially the digital side of things such as DACs etc. So if anyone ever needs advise on things audio related, feel free to pick my brains. Stanga