Barn door tracker?

[GordonCopestake]

Can anyone supply plans for a simple one arm barn door tracker that I could build with limited DIY skills? Assume I have one arm and maybe a hammer to assist me in my task...

I have the basic theory but the vagouries of bolt thread pitches and stepper motor hertz are beyond my sleep deprived brain at the moment so simple "buy this, bolt it here" would be good.

I know a few of you guys have built these things before (Phil?) how did you get on? Was it easy? Hard? Worth doing? My skies are orange so not sure if i'll get a long enough exposure to warrant a tracker?

[geppetto]

Gordon

Are you wanting it to be motor driven?

If so, that's the complicated part bits wise.

If you can make do with hand turned then its not so bad

This is a simple hand one thats easy to build and gives you the idea of what it's all about.

http://www.nightskypix.com/equip/ScotchMount.htm

[geppetto]

Forgot to mention this site where I got most of the info to build mine.

Theres a nice explanation of the sums to work out the dimensions 8)

http://www.mikeoates.org/mas/projects/scotch/

[GordonCopestake]

Thanks Phil, i'll take a look at both

[GordonCopestake]

I gave up and have just brought an RA driven EQ1 for £30

Should work better than anything I can cobble together!

[Andrew*]

I like how your sleep deprived brain works! I would have done the same!

What's going on the EQ1?

Andrew

[GordonCopestake]

Just my D70/18-70 so no weight really

[Andrew*]

Hey! That's a really good idea! I see where you're coming from here. I tried some widefields the other day. 15 second exposures produced trails at 4x, so a driven mount would be ideal for popping my camera on. Hmm... that got me thinking. Oh dear - that always leads to an overdraft bank account... damn you gordon!

Andrew

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Driven EQ1? Where does the motor come from, any idea?

Captain Chaos

[GordonCopestake]

It's a little 9v thingy

http://www.sherwoods-photo.com/sky_watcher/skywatcher_mounts_motors_fs.html

scroll down to "Single Axis D.C. Motor drive for EQ-1 equatorial mount"

They sell for £30 so getting the motor AND the mount for £30 is a bargain i thought

[GordonCopestake]

Oh, btw, i doubt they will be acurate hehe, but should be enough for wide field photography of my orange skies