Motor Drive For Deep Sky

[kornkobgrunt]

Would it be possible to do basic deep sky astrophotography with a EQ mount and a motor drive? I'm thinking that it will just drift off course over time.

[Galen Gilmore]

Need more info.

with a mount capable of holding your telescope, the basic motor drive will track just fine. My EQ5 can very easily support my 130PDS, so considering good polar alignment I could possibly get 3 minute exposures unguided.

A 250p on an EQ5? No that is not going to work. A 250p on an EQ6? Sure, that'll work. It just depends on your mount scope combo.

[DaveS]

Yes, you can, sort of.

A Skywatcher Star Adventurer will fit the bill, and enable basic deep sky AP if you use a DSLR and moderately long lens and keep the exposures short.

Beyond that it gets serious.

[ollypenrice]

You can certainly do deep sky imaging with a driven EQ mount, even just a budget one. In shorthand terms the focal length will need to be short. If you want to consider this more carefully it is not the focal length but the pixel scale which really matters. I would stick with camera lenses if you are starting with a DSLR. Very short focal lengths would allow you to do longer exposures and get far better images.

Olly

[kornkobgrunt]

5 hours ago, Galen Gilmore said:

Need more info.

with a mount capable of holding your telescope, the basic motor drive will track just fine. My EQ5 can very easily support my 130PDS, so considering good polar alignment I could possibly get 3 minute exposures unguided.

A 250p on an EQ5? No that is not going to work. A 250p on an EQ6? Sure, that'll work. It just depends on your mount scope combo.

I have a 127EQ, the finder scope is crap but I can buy a better one and I already have a suitable camera. Will the cheapy motor drive Celestron makes work for it? Also will any others also work for this scope?

[Galen Gilmore]

2 hours ago, kornkobgrunt said:

I have a 127EQ, the finder scope is crap but I can buy a better one and I already have a suitable camera. Will the cheapy motor drive Celestron makes work for it? Also will any others also work for this scope?

As far as I know the celestron EQ mount that you have is not of very good quality. It might be capable of some very basic 15-30 second exposures, I'm no where near an expert though so I can't guarantee that my advice is accurate. You might want to talk to @bobro as he images with an EQ 2 mount.

[bobro]

127EQ scopes typically have a relatively long 1000mm focal length. As Olly mentions above, a shorter focal length is better to help reduce wobble problems. The long focal length and relatively small aperture makes the scope slow, requiring longer exposure time. The design is usually Jones-Bird (tube approx 500mm long) with a 2x Barlow lens inside the focus tube to double the focal length. With Newtonian scopes there can be problem achieving focus with a DSLR attached due to lack of inward focuser travel. A Barlow lens however, effectively doubles the focuser effect so this scope may come to focus with a DSLR (my 130EQ didn't) - needs to be checked.

Basic 'Economy' motor drives (image below) are really for visual use as it's very difficult (but not impossible) to set an accurate speed using the tiny speed control knob (I fitted a larger knob onto mine). Better to go for the slightly more expensive motor drive as this has inbuilt accuracy. 

If you are determined you could firstly check if your camera comes to focus before purchasing a motor drive. Don't expect great results on DSOs though - wobble could be a problem. If things work out well exposures of 30 secs may be possible. It could be an idea to start off imaging the Moon as it is bright, allowing short exposures.

[Stub Mandrel]

In the beginning, people used EQ mounts with a clockwork drive. As long as you can achieve focus, you can do something.

Anything that tracks the stars will increase the length of your exposures.

Things like focal length, aperture, rigidity, motor accuracy, polar alignment will all affect how long you can get away with, but virtually ANY setup will get you started.

A 135mm telephoto lens will give useful results with almost any setup as even 8-10 second exposures will show you something if you stack enough of them (and point it in the right place).

See what you can achieve with what you have got, 'push the envelope' to discover its limitations and learn as much as you can from it, you will then be in a good pl;ace to know which upgrades/changes will make the biggest difference.

[kornkobgrunt]

Thanks for the advice! When I get the chance I'll test out the camera and if that works nicely I'll get a nicer motordrive. The mount may not be very good but with a little work I can get around that. Then I should be able to take pictures of DSO's on a budget.