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Advice on equatorial mount and motor driven axis

bradfrankshaw

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bradfrankshaw

bradfrankshaw

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Hi all - I'm after some advice on a Newtonian scope I have seen for sale that has an equatorial mount with a 9v clock drive motor. Apparently it drives a single axis. Not having had a driven scope before, and wanting to break into astrophotography (either through the scope or straight off the mount), can anyone tell me if this sort of motor on an equatorial mount will be suitable for long exposure shots? Also what would I need to connect a Canon DSLR to this mount?

cheers

frank

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Capricorn

Capricorn

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With just a motor the longest exposure time will be about 30 seconds, and that is with very good polar alignment, and a good stable mount.

For longer you will require a guide scope and camera and then the mount will need a goto system (or similar) for the feedback and guide data to be used.

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bradfrankshaw

bradfrankshaw

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Thanks guys :D I need some help then - bar going out and getting a Meade or Eq5-pro, everything else seems to be a confusing mess. Can anyone point me at a equatorial mount that I can use in conjunction with a DSLR for around £250~£300? I've read and read and been to Astronomia in Dorking, Surrey and because of budget concerns I'm aiming for just the mount now (this scope was just a ooo, good price, what's the catch?) and I'll concentrate on the scope later (more than likely a Newtonian).

thanks for the pointers guys!

frank

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cantharis

cantharis

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The seller is asking for cash on collection - isn´t it an eBay rule that you must be able to pay by Paypal??

Everyone on here will tell you that you have to have an EQ6 which will cost a lot more than your budget. You could get an EQ5 with motor drive for that. Will be OK for a small scope.

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Cornelius Varley

Cornelius Varley

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The seller is asking for cash on collection - isn´t it an eBay rule that you must be able to pay by Paypal??

Everyone on here will tell you that you have to have an EQ6 which will cost a lot more than your budget. You could get an EQ5 with motor drive for that. Will be OK for a small scope.

It would appear so. The item is colection only and cash on collection, this seems to be against ebay's policy. The telescope is also grossly overpriced, you can buy a new one for about £100 less if you really wanted one. :grin:

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VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

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Thanks guys :D I need some help then - bar going out and getting a Meade or Eq5-pro, everything else seems to be a confusing mess. Can anyone point me at a equatorial mount that I can use in conjunction with a DSLR for around £250~£300? I've read and read and been to Astronomia in Dorking, Surrey and because of budget concerns I'm aiming for just the mount now (this scope was just a ooo, good price, what's the catch?) and I'll concentrate on the scope later (more than likely a Newtonian).

thanks for the pointers guys!

frank

Hello

Beginner myself here, but here's my thoughts:

The only piece of advice I can give at this point, if youre serious about photography, is to hold out until you have the budget for a decent mount. I'm pretty sure you could come a long way with a light scope and an EQ-3, but in all honesty, it might turn out you need a heavier mount pretty quick when you start adding scopes, cameras, guiders etc

I would recommend atleast an EQ-5 (personally I just ruined my economy with the NEQ6) if you want to start putting scopes on it. If you get a lighter one for your camera only, it might end up being a bad investment if you rapidly want to move on to the real stuff.

There are a lot of other options for motorized mounts, but none that I know a great deal about, all I can do is refer to people on this forum and in my local club who swear by the EQ6.

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Planetesimal

Planetesimal

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There are some stunning photos in the SGL gallery taken with an SW 150P on EQ3-2 with motors. That set-up can be bought for less than £300 (not including the motors) and it comes with a DSLR connection and a "piggy back" screw for attaching the camera to the OTA. You can get a single axis drive for about £70. And you could mod the mount to make it a bit more stable ( sand in the legs etc. ).

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joe_coke

joe_coke

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I have the EQ3-2 and 150p (without motors) and its proved to be a great starting setup. Quite light and portable (for a newtonian) easy to setup and i've seen saturn and jupiter which took my breath away.

However i want to take photos and am considering upgrading. The setup was £300ish but i could have got the 200p EQ5 for £115 more, and i kind of regret not saving a bit moer and getting that. Add the motors and your setup for a basic start in astrophotography and a killer visual setup.

Its all about budgets though, the sturdier mounts are out of my price range unfortunately.

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themos

themos

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Frank, are you after a mount that will hold just the DSLR camera and a lens? If so, people have been getting good results with the EQ3/2 (plus modifications). And I have even been using a modified EQ1 to get decent shots. Can you tell which one of these was shot with an EQ1 and which with an EQ6?

http://www.astrobin....28f3aeffcf5.jpg

http://s3.amazonaws....ab7269f1a68.jpg

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bradfrankshaw

bradfrankshaw

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Frank, are you after a mount that will hold just the DSLR camera and a lens? If so, people have been getting good results with the EQ3/2 (plus modifications). And I have even been using a modified EQ1 to get decent shots. Can you tell which one of these was shot with an EQ1 and which with an EQ6?

http://www.astrobin....28f3aeffcf5.jpg

http://s3.amazonaws....ab7269f1a68.jpg

Hi Themos - I'm after a mount that initially can just be used for photography, but later used in conjunction with a telescope with a camera using a T mount. I'm currently learning a lot about DSLR astronomy shots using just a static tripod, standard lenses, wide angle and 300mm, short and long exposure, sky captures, moon and planetary shots; but all sky shots (especially anything that requires a degree of long exposure more than 5 seconds at maxiumum zoom of a 300mm lens) need some degree of motordrive. So my aim is to get a mount first and ramp up my skills in photography then obtain a telescope because basically I don't want to do everything at once - I tried a friends GOTO scope a few months back (accidentally knocking out the cable from the controller after spending ages doing multi star alignment was not fun I can tell you...) and tried using it to take photos through it but it quickly made me realise to learn to crawl before walking and then running. So a fair eq mount with motors on both axis (Have I got this correct?) with something to mount the DSLR on first of all which I can then use as a starting block for a scope afterwards is what I am after. cheersfrank

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