Where to buy affordable telescope tracking mounts

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hisan koko avatar

where can i buy cheap trackers i want to attach my telescope to it

TiffsAndAstro avatar

What telescope do you want to attach? Do you already have a tripod?

Do you want to image or just visual?

Friendly warning though - cheap will not handle a “big” telescope and maybe unreliable.

I bought a “cheap” mount and it was a major mistake :(

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David Joyce avatar

For keeping things cheaper, going used is probably your best bet. The Marketplace here is a great place for that as well as the classifieds on the CloudyNights forum and AstroMart though you do have to pay a membership fee for AstroMart but it’s worth it to me.

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DavesView avatar

Buy once, cry once. Better to cry about the price than the product.

telescopes.net You can get their Synchrony card and pay it off in 6 months with no interest.

Rainer Ehlert avatar

May we know where do you live?

hisan koko avatar

Rainer Ehlert · May 2, 2026, 06:53 PM

May we know where do you live?

dublin

hisan koko avatar

David Joyce · May 2, 2026, 04:45 PM

For keeping things cheaper, going used is probably your best bet. The Marketplace here is a great place for that as well as the classifieds on the CloudyNights forum and AstroMart though you do have to pay a membership fee for AstroMart but it’s worth it to me.

but cloudy nights and i quit it and for astromart i dont want to pay just to have a chance to sell something

hisan koko avatar

TiffsAndAstro · May 2, 2026, 11:53 AM

What telescope do you want to attach? Do you already have a tripod?

Do you want to image or just visual?

Friendly warning though - cheap will not handle a “big” telescope and maybe unreliable.

I bought a “cheap” mount and it was a major mistake :(

skywatcher heritage 130p and a canon rebel 600d with a 50mm lens,

i have the dobsonion mount if that counts,

i want to image,

i bought the Telescope AC 70/700 Skylux for its tracker ill see if it works i bought it for 37 euros

TiffsAndAstro avatar

You can take images with your 600d and 50mm lens with out a tracking mount.

The milky way will be coming up in summer, maybe experiment with that, see how you get on.

There are videos on you tube on how to do this.

You'll need to learn about exposure times, calibration frames,focusing, stacking and more, which will be important if you decide to get a tracking/goto capable mount.

This hobby is complicated, but, anything complicated can be broken down into less complicated parts.

I started with a 600d and a vintage 50mm f1.7 Pentax lens and shot the Great Orion nebula with just a tripod and an intervolmeter.

It wasn't “good” but I was very happy with myself and was instantly hooked on the hobby.

Be warned, setting fire to wads of £50 notes is cheaper, though maybe less fun :)

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Frédéric Ruciak avatar

Hi Hisan, as soon as you target astsrophoto, your mount has to be able to track well with your load and has to be easy to control with a PC. I had an EQ6R that was a really a good mount once I went through the tuning path, well documented on the web and absolutely necessary if you get a not well tuned from the factory as I did. Consistently delivered 0.4 to 0.7” RSM loaded with a newtonian 200mm F5 and an OSC ASI 2600MC and guiding scope, miniPC, …. I bought an EQ5 for travel but was clearly disapointed and I understood why it was impossible to get good tracking when I dismounted it to tune it (buy cheap cry a lot ;-)). So my portable mount is not so cheap it is a AM5 and it delivers 0.4 to 0.7” RMS with a newtonian 150mm F4 and an OSC camera, as well as the EQ6R but the AM5 is twice as expensive.

I sold my EQ6R for half the price as new so it was a good deal for the guy who bought it. If you know what to look for and you know how to spot the right candidate (ask a lot of details, you want to see the PHD2 guiding assistant log to spot the periodic error curve, and a guiding log with the right configuration, how it looks, how it balances, …), the second hand market is a good solution to get a very good price for very good mount.

CS Frédéric

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Rainer Ehlert avatar

hisan koko · May 2, 2026, 09:02 PM

Rainer Ehlert · May 2, 2026, 06:53 PM

May we know where do you live?

dublin

Looking at your equipment except the Canon and the 50mm lens, IMHO there is no way to take images with that.

The heritage 130 looks to unstable for me to attach a Canon DSLR and the Telescope AC 70/700 is a toy and also not able to be used with a DSLR camera. You will not be happy at all.

I recommend you search in your area for some astrophotographers and watch them do this and so you will know how it works.

May I ask how old are you?

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