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What mount do I need for astrophotography under 500?


Lotinsh

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I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with soldering and that much DIY work though 😅 perhaps just the star adventurer would be better? I don't know if with my experience I would be able to make that. Never done any big DIY projects so idk.

But if I would to say perhaps go with that option, what would I need to buy, like is there perhaps a full list of everything I would need? Also I was planning to order it tomorrow as it's black friday and lots of stuff will be on sale.

Seems like a fun idea, not sure about my capabilities though.

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The Omegon LX package seems a bit expensive, the basic north LX is around £100, the ball head is cheap to buy from anywhere, the rest of the price seems to be in the wedge which looks similar to the William Optics one though without using the LX packaged one couldn't compare the engineering quality. With my LX I use a TS Optics EQ wedge though there's the issue with stopping the LX from rotating due to it mounting onto a smooth plate (as there's no physical stop).

I think the Star Adventurer may be the better option as you can always use a small refractor and dslr setup with it in future, with the LX it's dslr only. Buy used to save on RRP if you want.

For even more future proofing look into the EQ telescope mount.

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4 minutes ago, Lotinsh said:

I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with soldering and that much DIY work though 😅 perhaps just the star adventurer would be better? I don't know if with my experience I would be able to make that. Never done any big DIY projects so idk.

But if I would to say perhaps go with that option, what would I need to buy, like is there perhaps a full list of everything I would need? Also I was planning to order it tomorrow as it's black friday and lots of stuff will be on sale.

Seems like a fun idea, not sure about my capabilities though.

Star adventurer won't be cheaper option when you add all of it together (tracker, counter weight kit, tripod, etc) and EQ5 is more future proof, but, it really depends on you getting DIY part - that means research on your part of what is best to use depending on your budget.

If you don't want to fiddle with motors yourself - then you can get (a bit more expensive) kits for EQ5:

single motor:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p396_Skywatcher-automatic-stepper-motor-tracking-for-EQ5-NEQ5.html

dual motor:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p399_Skywatcher-Dual-Axis-Stepper-Motor-Tracker-for-EQ5.html

Or dual motor with auto guider port:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p7293_Skywatcher-Dual-Axis-Stepper-Motor-Controller-for-EQ5.html

Do be careful with these upgrades - as in the long run, you can spend more money then purchasing EQ5 goto version right away.

With DIY - you'll be able to reuse components, but here you'll be purchasing upgrade after upgrade whenever you decide to get an improvement.

Here is another interesting little mount that has motors and goto and all. It is small mount however, much smaller than EQ5. It's probably somewhere in between of Star Adventurer and Eq5 in payload - which means that it will carry maybe very small scope like 70mm one:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p11151_Explore-Scientific-iEXOS-100-PMC-Eight-WiFi-GoTo-Mount---up-to-7-kg.html

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This seems like a better option, just to buy a ready one, will I still need to solder it or something, or do I just attach it to the EQ5? I don't have any tools so I might have to buy some. Also what adapters would I need to buy for my nikon camera? I think the dual motor with auto guider might be the best for me perhaps.

Edit: Will one of these work? 

https://www.ieskaties.lv/teleskopi/montejumi/montejuma-piederumi/sky-watcher-eq5-ra-motors-ar-pulti

https://www.ieskaties.lv/teleskopi/montejumi/montejuma-piederumi/sky-watcher-eq5-un-neq5-motori

Sorry its in latvian, but it seems to be cheaper to ship and overall the eq5 is cheaper here.

Edited by Lotinsh
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10 minutes ago, Lotinsh said:

This seems like a better option, just to buy a ready one, will I still need to solder it or something, or do I just attach it to the EQ5? I don't have any tools so I might have to buy some. Also what adapters would I need to buy for my nikon camera? I think the dual motor with auto guider might be the best for me perhaps.

Edit: Will one of these work? 

https://www.ieskaties.lv/teleskopi/montejumi/montejuma-piederumi/sky-watcher-eq5-ra-motors-ar-pulti

https://www.ieskaties.lv/teleskopi/montejumi/montejuma-piederumi/sky-watcher-eq5-un-neq5-motori

Sorry its in latvian, but it seems to be cheaper to ship and overall the eq5 is cheaper here.

As far as I can tell - those are the same ones I linked

single motor RA drive

and dual motor without guide port.

They do seem rather expensive though? (maybe with VAT added and shipping - they end up being cheaper then in TS?).

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Dual axis motor drive form the forum sponsors FLO is £125 here  or if you want the enhanced kit - £149 here (worth the extra for the ST4 should you later want to add a guide camera at a later stage)

EQ5 from FLO - £315,

So £440  or £464 depending on option -  plus delivery for a driven mount capable of handling a DSLR camera and 200mm telephoto

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Another option would be to buy used. I bought my HEQ5 mount used, for 550 EUR, a bit over a year ago here in Athens (which is not renowned for a large second hand astronomy market).

And I guess that you could find good deals from people in your area wishing to upgrade to a better mount.

N.F.

 

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Looking to the future, and maybe out of your present budget, but if you have the EQ5 with the Synscan GoTo, and a camera and laptop that allow you to platesolve, instead of struggling to get the (possibly invisible) object that you want to image into the field, you can platesolve and then tell the system to re-sync, placing the object dead centre in the image field.  I have only used this a few times, but it's brilliant. 😀

(Actually, this should work with any Synscan or Nexstar GoTo mount.)

Edited by Cosmic Geoff
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  • 2 months later...

For say the Star Adventurer lifting a camera and lens - my heaviest outfit would be the Lumix G9 and PL100-400, total mass about 1.5kg. Adequate for the job.. For wide field, a much lighter lens. 

If we are looking at astrophotography with a camera and lens - they're not all that heavy. With an Alt-Az though, you're going to get comma except with short exposures, which defeats the purpose of a motorised EQ. 

You can spend a lot of money modifying a mount, it may be fun to do, but they are out there are reasonable prices.

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