Compact Astrophotography Mount - Forums

Topic starter

Nov 2, 2023

Hi fellow AstroBinners!

I am a begginer in Astrophotography, my dream is to shoot galaxies with long exposures to get the details.

So I am looking for a setup to achive that.

At the moment Im using a small EQ mount, with a tracking motor that plugs into the "slow-control". Here is an image of it:

This setup might be enough for moon tracking, but when I tried Deep Sky Objects I soon realized its nearly impossible to do longer exposures.

Not only you have to manualy find your target, but also adjust the tracking speed, which has no reference points. You just spin the control knob and see if the speed matches. And even if visually it does, a 30 second exposure will reveal severe star contrails.

Basically doing Deep Sky with this setup is impossible.

So here I am looking for something more serious.

One of the biggest criteria for me would portability and weight. I often travel by plane, and the smaller/lighter the setup is - the better. Also, Im planning to use small telescopes, Refractors 60~70~80mm. So nothing of a heavy duty.

Looking forward to your advice!

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Boyan Stiliyanov

Nov 2, 2023

Hi,
you can get a Star Adventurer tracker:

can be attached to a tripod (for photography)
can be battery powered (no extra cables or heavy batteries)
can mount up to 5kg (I see people use it with 60-70mm telescopes)

You can also find smaller trackers, but the Star Adventurer is very widely used. You can find many videos about different configurations, limitations, tips on youtube.

Concise

firstLight

Nov 2, 2023 · Edited: Nov 3, 2023

I used to use the Sky Watcher Star Adventurer (SWSA) in my first two years of AP with great joy. Especially wider fields (Pleiades, Orion Nebulae, M31 (And) galaxy ...) but also the rich galaxy clusters in Vir / Com.

The latter give some real deep space impression - but of course you can not expect galaxy closeups, full frames and good resolution with what the SWSA can carry reliably.

Of course the famous Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is well in reach with at most(!) 300 mm focal length, because it is so big.

Apart from that, open clusters and in particular extended bright nebulae and dark cloudes (molecule clouds) are well in reach. Also NGC1499 (aka "California Nebula") and alike - even with unmodified DSLRs.

Search for the SWSA here on AstroBin ... you will find many targets and nice images!

You can also have a look at my profile gallery: The oldest images there are from when I started with AP 3 years ago - mostly taken with an unmodified DSLR and the SWSA.

I used it with 4 AA batteries (1.2V, recharchable) a long time. It can also be driven with a handy powerbank. My "mount" was a sturdy but lightweight carbon photo tripod.

Just do it!

Good luck and CS,
Frank

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Dan H. M.

Nov 2, 2023

Welcome. A 60-80mm refractor will not get you details on any galaxies except for close, bright ones like M31. Scopes of that size are really for large nebulae like Orion, the Pleiades, etc.

As for a mount, I would go with a ZWO AM3 or an iOptron equivalent. Super portable and will guide a small refractor with no problems. Star trackers are usable but limiting. You'll be glad you spent the money on a real mount.

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Alien_Enthusiast

Topic starter

Nov 2, 2023

Welcome. A 60-80mm refractor will not get you details on any galaxies except for close, bright ones like M31. Scopes of that size are really for large nebulae like Orion, the Pleiades, etc.

As for a mount, I would go with a ZWO AM3 or an iOptron equivalent. Super portable and will guide a small refractor with no problems. Star trackers are usable but limiting. You'll be glad you spent the money on a real mount.

What if I use a 70mm Mak with focal length of 750mm? Will it get me the Triangulum galaxy?

Dan H. M.

Nov 2, 2023

Alien_Enthusiast:
Welcome. A 60-80mm refractor will not get you details on any galaxies except for close, bright ones like M31. Scopes of that size are really for large nebulae like Orion, the Pleiades, etc.

As for a mount, I would go with a ZWO AM3 or an iOptron equivalent. Super portable and will guide a small refractor with no problems. Star trackers are usable but limiting. You'll be glad you spent the money on a real mount.

What if I use a 70mm Mak with focal length of 750mm? Will it get me the Triangulum galaxy?

Assuming the optics are good, it would do a decent job on Triangulum but would be limiting for other targets such as M31. If you already have that scope then go for it. If not, a refractor or camera lens with a similar aperture offers much more versatility.

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Ed Dixon

Nov 2, 2023

Use this to see what to expect with different scopes and camera options.

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

jewzaam

Nov 2, 2023

If this is something you built and have control over the rate of tracking you can set it to sidereal and be done. Will require decent polar alignment. For the goal stated, imaging galaxies, you're going to be limited with a small and light rig but could do M31 and M33 depending on the optics. I built a motorized barn door tracker when I started out. Raspberry Pi Pico controlling a small stepper motor. I've imaged with a 135mm Rokinon and Canon DSLR and gotten OK results. I have used that same camera + lens for Andromeda but not on the barn door. The tradeoff with something like your rig and my barn door is the exposure time. You can't go long. But you can still capture data! At 135mm with polar alignment using a red dot finder, I was able to push 15 second exposures. Here are images I created from data collected from that setup earlier this year.

https://www.astrobin.com/9q8u01/
https://www.astrobin.com/khyyvh/
https://www.astrobin.com/dhidr6/

And the shot of M31 with the camera + lens but on an equatorial mount. I expect you'd get reasonable results with shorter exposures given it's a bright target.

https://www.astrobin.com/pu1fxg/

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jewzaam

Nov 2, 2023 · Edited: Nov 2, 2023

Forgot to reference my tracker. All the parts, 3D print models, source, and instructions are available: https://github.com/jewzaam/barn-door-tracker
I have learned a lot about data collection and processing since then, it includes pictures I took when I was just starting in the AP hobby. They are also posted on my astrobin if you look back to my very early pictures

Patrick Graham

Nov 3, 2023

I'd weigh in with a ZWO AM5 mount and its carbon fiber tripod. Super light weight and combined with a WO RedCat refractor, a perfect rig to travel with.

CS

Patrick

Euripides

Nov 3, 2023

Unfortunately, shooting galaxies and capturing details, are not good friends with short focal lengths at all.
In addition to that, while shooting in long focal lengths, you need a good-quality EQ base.

If you make a search for galaxies in here filtering with focal length, you will get an idea of what kind of scope you 'll need to get the details you want.

Tom Gray

Nov 3, 2023 · Edited: Nov 3, 2023

I’ve enjoyed setting up a light weight rig using the Star Adventurer 2i pro (widely available in second hand market) with an old 80mm WO refractor. You will need to autoguide this for exposures longer than 30-60s, and this can be done quite cheaply. I use a Stellarmate based RPi4 which is an amazing gadget and power the whole rig with a portable battery when away from mains power. With careful setup I can get 5-10min exposures. More detail and examples here https://www.astrobin.com/cem5rq/

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Alien_Enthusiast

Topic starter

Nov 3, 2023

Tom Gray:
I’ve enjoyed setting up a light weight rig using the Star Adventurer 2i pro (widely available in second hand market) with an old 80mm WO refractor. You will need to autoguide this for exposures longer than 30-60s, and this can be done quite cheaply. I use a Stellarmate based RPi4 which is an amazing gadget and power the whole rig with a portable battery when away from mains power. With careful setup I can get 5-10min exposures. More detail and examples here https://www.astrobin.com/cem5rq/

*Would you say 330usd is a good price for a used 2i pro?*

Tom Gray

Nov 3, 2023

Sounds pretty good - they go for around 250-300 GBP. They only track in RA (similar to a barn door mount), but support ST4 on camera or EQMOD pulse guiding.