no idea where to put this question

[rowan46]

I was looking at the astrotracer gps by pentax as i am looking for a new dslr and this device is swinging me towards the pentax kr. All the pics I have seen are taken on a stationary mount and give longer subs or tighter stars. Does anyone know if the system could be used on an eq mount say the ioptron smart eq. and let the image stabilisers take over the work of compensating for tracking errors. It occurred to me that you could then have a very portable goto wide field imaging system effectively guided but without all the complicated spagetti has anybody tried one of these cameras on an eq scope or even an eq1 which would make it as portable and cheaper than an astrotrac. Is this another stupid idea?

[Capricorn]

This about as much as I can see on it:

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Number/4616712

Appears that the mechanism moves the sensor chip a bit, so it would extend the exposure time, by how much I have no idea, and reading CN it seems it is unspecified. You would have to locate the amount of movement possible then determine the extension based on the earths rotational rate.

As said it may extend an exposure from 30 sec to 45 sec, but the movement will not come close to the exposures that a driven system will allow. However all of them will need accurate alignment .

[ggreene1]

I think that the image stabilization on a DSLR lens is more suited to rapid camera movements. I'm not sure it would react with such a relatively slow movement of your scope. Just a thought...