astrophotography and tracking

[adrastea]

I'm sorry for being a bit thick, but can you track objects for astrophotography without a motorised mount? I do have a slightly broken EQ mount (currently without a telescope to go with it), which I could attach a camera to, but it's not motorised and I'm not sure if trying to track an object by hand would cause too much camera shake. I'm so clueless, so sorry for being such a total beginner!! I'm just a bit confused.... :? :? :?

[trevboyd]

Hi adrastea

No such thing as a stupid question

I don't have a motorised mount either (motors on Santa's list for Christmas!) and have had some limited success tracking by hand. I find that with practice, I can get reasonable 10s exposures with my DSLR at prime focus, or 20-30s with the DSLR and 200mm lens piggybacked on top of the scope (maybe more, but I haven't tried). Obviously, as the focal length increases, the accuracy of tracking becomes more and more important.

It does take some practice, but with just a camera attached to your mount, you should expect some reasonable results.

Some of my photos are:

Cassiopeia 28mm lens

M31 200mm lens

Double cluster 200mm lens

M45 200mm lens

M57 prime focus

Hope that helps!

Trev