cheapest guiding mount for dslr

[rightguard]

hi all

sold up a while ago but just got a new skywatcher 200p dob, and it's got me thinking about astrophotography again.

for the time being it will be widefield dslr lens imaging, so im wondering what the cheapest way to go about this is? i'll use my finderscope as my guiding scope but not sure about mounts and goto etc etc. cheapest route to go down for dslr imaging is what im after!

thanks folks

tom

[baggywrinkle]

Just wide field? <40mm lenses with fast F numbers?

Have a look at the Nano Tracker or similar on a good stiff tripod.

[jambouk]

Hi

I'm unclear what you want to achieve:

- widefield with just a dalr on a tracking mount?

- widefield with just a dslr but guided with a finder scope

- widefield with a dslr piggy backed on a 200mm newtonian and guided

- prime focus photography with a dslr looking through the newtonian?

I only know a little about skywatcher mounts: if you are planning to mount the newtonian and other kit, you'll have a fair amount of weight so EQ5 and above; ideally an HEQ5 or an NEQ6 if you can afford them - i suspect £400 and £600 second hand respectively.

GOTO only allows the scope to slew to the target you tell it to (assuming you've done a star alignment correctly and everything on the scope and mount is nicely aligned), the GOTO has nothing to do with how well the mount and kit will track an object once you've found it, that is purely dependant upon your polar alignment which you would need to do at the start of each session if moving the mount between sessions (it sounds more tedious than it actually is). Guiding will improve your tracking accuracy but you will still need to be polar aligned. I've not ventured down guiding route yet but itching to have a go.

James