Queston about tracking with piggy backed camera

[The Warthog]

If I have a tracking mount, and a camera attachment on top of it, and put my camera on top of the telescope, does the camera have to be pointing at the same thing the telescope is pointing at? If my scope is pointing at Jupiter, while I watch a shadow transit, can my camera be taking a widefield pic of Cygnus? I think it can, but I'm only 90% sure...

[Astroman]

Yes, it can WH. I did this atop the 14" on Mauna Kea. Just stuck my camera on top and let it ride. I just wish I'd have checked the F stop I was set at beforehand, as it was my last shot. It doesn't seem to matter if you expose for 9 minutes, if the camera's set at F/22.

[The Warthog]

Oh, good! I am getting a new mount, and will have a motor for it by spring, and I already have rings for it with a camera tripod screw on it. I wouldn't mind trying some stunning widefield shots with my old Fujica SLR.

[Ambermile]

Umm - no. Well, yes. Maybe no. Depends how far away from your guidescope the camera is pointing. Think about it.

Arthur

[The Warthog]

I was thinking about it. That's where I got into trouble. The more I think about ti, though, the more I think that as long as the camera is on an object that is rotating about the pole, it will rotate about the pole, too, and follow the sky successfully. NO?

[Astroman]

I was thinking about it. That's where I got into trouble. The more I think about ti, though, the more I think that as long as the camera is on an object that is rotating about the pole, it will rotate about the pole, too, and follow the sky successfully. NO?

Yes.

It doesn't matter what the scope is looking at, if anything. As long as it's tracking, it's a photographic platform. On Mauna Kea, the scope was looking at, essentially Mauna Loa, 15 miles to the east and straight along the horizon.