DSLR Tracking Mounts

[Fay]

Robert that is a very good post, you are very funny too!!!

I have been planning one one for a while, cant have a choice of colour though, as long as its not yellow!

[Carole]

as long as its not yellow!

You don't want a Banana Mount?

Thanks for all that info guys, not quite ready to take that step yet (want to practice on the imaging mount first to make sure I can actually image with a camera lens before spending any more money), but all noted for future reference. 

Carole

[JohnP]

I have been planning one one for a while

Fay thought you had an ioptron....?

[Fay]

i sold it a while ago. couple of things i was not keen on, mainly the part that the camera is fixed to, i found it hard to rotate the camera without loosening the base. 

[Carole]

After reading this thread I watched a video by Nature and Astronomy centre on the Star Adventurer. 

One thing that puzzled me, was they say you can put a small scope on it, but the mounting puck is in the wrong position in relation to the polarscope.  Does this mean you have to get a dovetail with a 90 degree angle to it?

Obviously this is not with regards DSLR's but it's the same mount and if it can serve 2 purposes I'd like to understand it. 

Carole

[The Thing]

It works just like any other GEM Carole.  I am pretty sure that a standard dovetail will fit in the puck just fine - it is a SkyWatcher device. However you need something to allow DEC motion to use a scope, the long dovetail bar has this with a standard screw for a camera as well as two 3/8" tripod threads for ball joints etc. The short dovetail is intended to hold a ball joint for aiming. You would need to make sure the scope has a tripod bush, my Skywatcher AT80 comes with a plastic block that screws to the tube rings to give this capability.

[Carole]

Thanks Duncan, I'll take a look at yours again or some-one else's when I get a chance, but as I am a long way off buying a DSLR mount there's no urgency.

Carole

[Sue]

We have just bought (last night) complete Astro Trac kit, with the pillar, secondhand, in wonderful condition. Will be ideal for coranado and visual observing with tak -nicely portable,  plus Roy's photography. So I am afraid no let up in clouds for a while 

[RobertM]

Hi Sue,

It'll be ideal for that and other things too.  I'm sure you'll get a lot of use out of it.  Of course as I mentioned getting the whole kit is the best way to go to.

Robert

[The Thing]

Here's my double barreled setup.
The silver QHY5L-II Mono is mounted in the 'tube rings' from the Deluxe kit, this is a solid unit with a tripod bush. This is then fixed to the Canon hotshoe with a thingy that I got a long time ago from who knows where! But they are 99p from ebay. There is an ST4 cable to link the camera to the mount. In PHD you must disable DEC output in the brain.

Note the green bungee for stabilising the tripod. One good thing is it makes it a lot harder to kick the tripod out of polar alignment

Front:


Back:

[MarkS]

That looks like a great setup Duncan!

Mark

[Carole]

Well I finally managed to buy myself an Ioptron Skytracker, I've been waiting for one to come up 2nd hand and I finally found one.  Still not convinced I will be any good with just the camera lens and no laptop for getting good focus, so didn't want to fork out for a new one.

I've gone for this one as I wanted a lighter one for taking on holidays (without using a laptop) not that I have a holiday booked in the near future, so hopefully that will give me time to get some practice in beforehand.

Carole

[MarkS]

I'm sure you'll enjoy using the Skytracker.

Mark

[Simon E]

Has anyone tried on of these.



ops am i thick, there is a picture of one above, Have you got any images from the above setup?

si

[The Thing]

Has anyone tried on of these.

[http://www.altairastro.com/images/D/star_adventurer_2xDSLR.jpg]

ops am i thick, there is a picture of one above, Have you got any images from the above setup?

si

Yes. Love it.