Astrotrac

[Richie092]

Hi All

Most weekends I'm away somewhere in the caravan at food/country/game shows selling on my stall. When going to particularly dark places I have been taking my set up with me but after a days work it can sometimes be a bit much setting the whole thing up, worse packing it all away late at night.

I was also a little concerned about security leaving it all in the van during the day so i got myself an ST80 on an EQ1 with travel bag from FLO. It's surprisingly good but my main aim is to learn AP with my DSLR so not ideal.

Anyway..... to my point finally - I have been looking at StuartJPP's excellent pics with his astrotrac and am wondering if that is the way to go? I have a 60D and a couple of excellent zoom lenses.

I have had a look but not found a massive amount of info on them astrotrac so a few q's are in order.

How do you set them up?

Do you have to power them with AA's or can i get transformer/12v plug?

Can you set them up on a levelish table or is it critical to set it up on a level tripod?

I guess the polar scope is critical?

I know the unit is 1kg but do you need counterweights? (am thinking about holidays and flying)

What is the auto guiding set up? Can I use my laptop, PHD and QHY5-II with it?

Appreciate there are a lot of Q's here but if anyone knows the answer to 1 or 2 of them I would like to hear from you.