[Jasp05 (Aaron)]

Hi guys,

Wanted to get some opinions on how well you think you could do using a dslr with 18-200mm lenses on a motorised eq-2 mount?

Surely this would have to be more stable than a barn door tracker?

Would purchasing a clock drive built for the mount be best? or should I endeavour to attach my own stepper motor?

I'm currently using a barn door tracker attached to an old EQ-1 or 2 mount (This helps with getting the latitude due to the EQ head. I've locked the declination and ra axis on the mount. Just relying on the barn door for RA tracking. ) getting ok results with wide lenses (18-50mm) but would like to start pushing towards 200mm and get 1-2min subs. (currently getting 20-30sec subs but this could be more so due to my lack of accurate polar alignment. I use a compass and app on my phone to set direction and latitude.)

The EQ mount I'm looking to purchase has a built in polar scope which I imagine will be a big help in itself for polar alignment.

Do you think this would be more stable than my current setup? (I'm pretty certain it would be given my old mount is pretty shoddy).

Give me your thoughts on whether this would be worth the $100 bucks for a new mount.