AstroDKP

Yh sure. I was going to get it from the link given to me...

Sorry it took me a while to reply. I decided to contact Astro Gadget as well and see what they said about the tracking accuracy. They assured me that the the system will be good enough for AP with my equipment, thus I plan to purchase an EQStarEQ5 upgrade kit in the few days. Once again thank you all very, very much for your help and advice.

I hope you don't mind me asking but I would really appreciate it if you could give some specifics... What was the maximum exposure length you could take without trailing for both the 6V DC and EqStar setups? What equipment were you using (total weight, focal length)? Thanks

Thanks everyone for your help so far. I really want to image with the telescope, focusing on planetary nebula primarily. Will these motors work well with this telescope in particular? Any first hand experience? From what you have already said though, I am thinking that with the 1200mm focal length, 6.4kg 150PL OTA, this is unlikely to be good enough for AP (although I am by no means expecting multi-minute perfect exposures). If I am correct, what other options do I have? (I have heard about a more expensive SynScan option?, though I am really trying to keep the cost low). I am not too bad at DIY and was definitely thinking about either making a OnStep/AstroEQ later on if I went down this route, which is why this budget kit was quite appealing to me.

Hello everyone, For your reference, my equipment... SkyWatcher 150PL, manual EQ5, used Canon 550D. I recently purchased my first "proper" telescope, the SW 150PL, and have so far managed to take some nice photos of the Moon/planets with the 550D. However, now I would really like to try my hand at some deep-sky AP with the telescope. Unfortunately, I have found that with my manual EQ5 untracked this is not feasible, especially as I have to use the 1.5x tip of my 2x barlow to focus with the DSLR, further slowing down the scope to f12. My thinking (though I am probably wrong) is that this is why I can't image fainter stars. For instance, I tested the scope by taking exposures of Vega and its surrounding stars and no matter how hard I tried could not get any other stars in the image (except for Vega). Therefore, I am thinking about adding some simple, budget-friendly tracking to fix this problem and capture some brighter DSOs by taking longer exposures. I am not really fussed about GoTo as I can find my way around the sky (most of the time! 😅). In particular, I was thinking of this dual-axis motor upgrade for the EQ5: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-mount-upgrade-kits/dual-axis-dc-motor-drive-for-eq5.html. I would be really grateful if you could answer some of my questions... Will these motors be accurate enough the take long exposure subs so that I can capture these objects? More generally, will this upgrade solve my current problem? If not, any better suggestions/solutions? If I end up getting this kit is it worth getting the version with the 'Enhanced Handset' (https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-eq5-enhanced-dual-axis-motor-drives.html) for my purpose? Could I also use this to track the planets? (Sorry, I know this question doesn't quite fit under the DSO Imaging tab) Many thanks in advance, much appreciated.