Dobsonian Wedges

[Ganymede12]

I'm looking into options for putting my dobsonian on an equatorial mount for webcam astrophotography. After e-mailing FLO I have found the EQ5  probably won't be sturdy enough since my garden is rather exposed to the wind and may take up a lot of room anyway. 

So the only option that doesn't involve a more expensive mount or a new telescope is getting a dobsonian wedge. So a couple of qestions;

Will a dobsonian wedge be good enough for webcam astrophotography? 

Does anyone know of a good place to buy one and which one to buy? I looking for one for under £300 preferable that can support a Skyliner 200P Dob. 

[ronin]

Do you mean these sort of things:
http://www.equatorial-platforms-uk.co.uk/

[Ganymede12]

Yes, Equatorial Platforms (I had the wrong name). 

These are the two reasonably priced ones I have found

Dobson EQ platform 1 €349 (£272.82)

Tracking platforms for Dobsonian telescopes   $395 (£262.69)

Both of these are from overseas so I'm not sure  how I would pay. 

[lennylovit]

have a look @ http://www.equatorial-platforms-uk.co.uk/

uk made and I think its the same as Dave (Mr Flibble) uses

bit strong on the price !!!!!

Lenny

[ronin]

I only asked as with "wedge" in the subjet I was imagining a dobsonian base on a wedge at 52 degrees or so.

Also others may have wondered.

Not exactly sure about them as they have been around a few years but are it would seem very much a rarity.

I would suspect they enable some tracking but not quite what is either expected or hoped for.

Mind you at £445 it seems less trouble to buy an equitorial and small scope and just keep a Newtonian on a Dobsonian base and get a small imaging rig. If you want wecam imaging that implies planetary and you could pick up an Alt/Az 127 Mak (used) and use that.

[Ganymede12]

Unfortunately £445 is out of my price range which is why I'm looking at the overseas options. 

[John]

I used to have one of the UK made eq platforms which I used with my 12" F/5.3 dobsonian. It did a good job of tracking for visual observing but I'm not sure if it would be good enough for anything other than shortish webcam planetary / lunar "snapshots". I'm not an imager though.

[Carina Lass]

I think that there's an inherent problem in that the OTA sits in a groove on the mount and by the time you get over 50 odd degrees, it it likely to pop out of the groove.

Webcam astrophotography can be done with no wedge as the frame rate is about 30 per second so eliminating any trailing.Stacking done in registax will give you a decent image - I've done similar with a non tracking ALT AZ mount

[Ganymede12]

I have taken one successful picture with my webcam through a telescope by manually tracking (its my profile pic). I'm currently expecting a spectroscpoe from America and I would like to have a go at imaging a star's spectra at some point. Can I still manually track for a relatively successful image?

[Carina Lass]

I am not aware of any software that stacks spectrograph lines.

I think you're gonna need tracking for that.

[Ganymede12]

What about taking single snapshot images?

[ronin]

Going to be a spoilsport    and suggest asking about stacking software for spectra in the Radio Astronomy.and Spectroscopy. bit of SGL. Theorecically there should be a greater chance of an answer then continuing under Mounts. :rolleyes:

[ollypenrice]

Note that equatorial platforms are not wedges. They don't tilt the base of the Dob over to the equatorial angle. That would never work because they'd fall over or fall off! The geometry is quite ingenious and it took me a (long) while to get my head round it.

One thing to look out for is the time it takes to reset, since they can only provide a finite amount of tracking time. Some are easier to reset than others. 

I'm sure an EQ platform would make webcamming far easier.

Olly

[Ganymede12]

Okay. So would either of the those two linked in my original post be any good or does anyone know of other dealers that may sell platforms in my price range?