[LAW (Murphy)]

Hey everyone, after some of the amazing time lapse videos on here and YouTube I've been keen to get my own rig. I found a $20 unit on eBay which is fun to play with in daylight but completely useless for astro use so I'm looking at the Skywatcher EQ1 with RA drive. I's ~$200 and should provide flexible slow movement for what I want.

I'm hoping that it will provide "close enough" tracking for wide angle Milky Way shots as a 'grab and go' with just my DSLR and I can use the North/South selector to reverse the panning direction for when I want to shoot off the rotational axis using the speed controller for different effects. To mount the DSLR I'll use a 2" bar with a 1/4" countersunk bolt mounted in it, but rather than bolt the dslr directly to the EQ mount I'm planning on mounting a tripod ball head in between to give complete flexibility.

Has anyone had any experience with the EQ1? Or knows of a better rig for time lapse in that budget range? Or just any other ideas, suggestions...?

Hopefully (and this is just a thought experiment at the moment) I'll be able to set the mount for 90 degrees latitude for horizontal panning, or anything up to vertical at 0 degrees, select forwards or backwards with the North/South selector, and change the speed with the hand controller. The motor runs off a 9V battery and my DSLR has a 12V or 240V adapter as well as a dual battery pack and the capability of my Sigma 17-70mm and 70-300mm lenses so I'm hoping this will be the perfect "travel scope" for the amateur astrophotographer.