Astrophotographers with a Canon 1200D

[stevepenny]

Hi,

Does anyone have an opinion on using a Canon 1200D piggybacked on an EQ2 (Skywatcher 130 Newtonion) for astrophography.

the plan would be to use a 300mm lens with as long an exposure as possible given the limitations of the mount which is RA driven.

If anyone has any idea of what could be achieved I would be very grateful. DSO's would be my choice targets!!!

Thanks

[Knight of Clear Skies]

There are some images taken with a 1200D on Astrobin, it seems to be another good Canon model for astrophotography.

Piggybacking the camera on an EQ2 mount could be tricky. The problem is that without a polar scope it will be difficult to get a good alignment. It should be OK for short lenses (up to 50mm or so) but 300mm is quite a lot of magnification. You might also get a better result by removing the scope and mounting the camera directly, possibly with a ball-head joint for easy aiming. I was managing to get 2 minute subs at 50mm without a polar scope just sighting through the mount, but my Eq3-2 has a bubble level and azimuth adjustment bolts to make aiming the mount easier, which I believe the EQ2 doesn't have?

It is possible to bodge-up a polar scope to the side of an EQ2. One poster here did this with an EQ1 to use as a travel mount for widefield AP but I can't find the link now.

Edit - found the link, and there are some images taken with it here.

[stevepenny]

That's a great Polar scope idea; many thanks.