Motor drives

[Alex Iordache]

I bought a few months ago a celestron astromaster 130eq telescope and i want to get into astophotography. I am already doing startrails and mikyway, but i want to get into lunar, planetary and some deep-space (orion and things like that, nothing special). I have a T-adapter and everything to connect my DSLR to my telescope, but the traking is quite a problem. I want to buy a motor drive for the RA axis but I don't know if I should get the eq1 motor or the eq2 motor. What is the difference between them anyway?

[ronin]

Could find that the drive required is neither EA1 or EQ2 as it is a Celestron and EQ1, EQ2 refer to Skywatcher.

https://www.celestron.com/products/astromaster-powerseeker-motor-drive

Before you start find the difference out in the imaging you are talking of. Planets are usually imaged by a Mak or SCT with a 2x Balow attached so a focal length  of around 3000 to 40000mm. The imaging done usually by getting a webcam video of the planet and then stacking the best 200 (or whatever seems best) frames of the video.

DS imaging is stacking a few exposures, say 10 or 20, of say 20 seconds each.

Basically a different approach and no real overlap.

The mount you have appears to have no option for a polar scope so polar alignment will have a degree opf guesswork involved, which will limit exposure time. You are likely going to limited to 20 or 30 seconds for DSO imaging - but that is OK for a start. Doubt that you will get a focal length suitable for planets but planets are disappearing for a time anyway.

Get a motor if they are not expensive, otherwise consider keeping the money and put towards a better mount, the EQ3-2 is more suited.

Add a location as it is difficult to say go look at FLO (UK) or TS (De) or Astronomics (US) as not a clue where you are.

[Alex Iordache]

34 minutes ago, ronin said:

Could find that the drive required is neither EA1 or EQ2 as it is a Celestron and EQ1, EQ2 refer to Skywatcher.

https://www.celestron.com/products/astromaster-powerseeker-motor-drive

Before you start find the difference out in the imaging you are talking of. Planets are usually imaged by a Mak or SCT with a 2x Balow attached so a focal length  of around 3000 to 40000mm. The imaging done usually by getting a webcam video of the planet and then stacking the best 200 (or whatever seems best) frames of the video.

DS imaging is stacking a few exposures, say 10 or 20, of say 20 seconds each.

Basically a different approach and no real overlap.

The mount you have appears to have no option for a polar scope so polar alignment will have a degree opf guesswork involved, which will limit exposure time. You are likely going to limited to 20 or 30 seconds for DSO imaging - but that is OK for a start. Doubt that you will get a focal length suitable for planets but planets are disappearing for a time anyway.

Get a motor if they are not expensive, otherwise consider keeping the money and put towards a better mount, the EQ3-2 is more suited.

Add a location as it is difficult to say go look at FLO (UK) or TS (De) or Astronomics (US) as not a clue where you are.

I will get a traking mount, but not too soon because I don't have the money and they are pretty expensive where I live (Romania). I most want a motor for lunar surafce, as you said, to take a video and stack some frames. I already have some decent pictures, but I want to improve. I just want to know if I can use one of these two motors for my mount. The mount type is CG-3 Equatorial if it helps you with anything. I know about the motor you sent me but it is not avalabile where I live.

[happy-kat]

You don't need a motor drive for planets or the Moon as you shoot those using short video clips and you can let the object drift across the field of view. 

If you are into diy you could maybe build a motor for your mount.

[Alex Iordache]

13 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

You don't need a motor drive for planets or the Moon as you shoot those using short video clips and you can let the object drift across the field of view. 

If you are into diy you could maybe build a motor for your mount.

I know that and this is what I am doing, but I want to upgrade+ I can use this motor for timelapse too and I do want to start deepsky.