Travel Astrophoto - Which equipment ?

[Helvetius]

I am travelling a lot and when going to nice remote places with great dark skies it is always frustrating not to have some decent equipment for astrophoto.
The issue is mainly with the weight of all this equipment that has to be carried by plane. The target is max 7 Kg for expôsures up to 5 min.

Scope: a 80ED for large field only with the 300d or DSI (max 3.5 kg all together)
Mount: EQ3 head with stepper motor on RA ? (weight ?)
For the tripod, I would make a transportable pier, based on PVC pipe, filled with sand on location.
Counterweigths for the EQ mount would be custom made also.

I am not sure if PEC is a problem with such short focal length and if I need a specific controller for the motor.
For autoguiding I think it is not necessary if the polar alignment is well done. With my LX200, I can hold up to 5 min without autoguiding, at 2000 mm focal length. With an EQ3 I don't know.

Your ideas and comments are welcome,
Cheers

[JohnH]

Like this one:

http://www.telescopehouse.co.uk/page.aspx?pointerid=5B63DDB51CEA4D0 18DEA27F1CCE159F0&thelang=001lngdef

I think Vixen do a similar model.

You can add an RA drive - should be ok to fl up to 200mm or so for 2-3 mins.

[janoskiss]

Maybe one of the smaller 80mm apo scopes from WO would be better for travel than the ED80 which has an oversized tube, and is probably heavier too. The WOs are a bit shorter and faster as well.

[Striker]

Having had both the orion ED80 and the williams optic 80mm their both about the same weight......surprisingly...actual just checked the sites and the williams optic 80mm is .2 of a pound heavier then the ED80.

Bit scary doing any kind of astrophotography with an EQ3.... but proove us wrong.

[Helvetius]

Thanks for your inputs,

I got some new ideas:
- replace the 300d by my old beloved CP4500 and a good EP, that should reduce the total weight to about 3.3 kg.
- a Nextar DX mount. I'm not really fond of this plastic stuff but it fits the purpose, at least from the specs. It's here and in German :( http://www.teleskop-service.de/Celestronseiten/Montierungen/nexmontierung.htm#NexEQ
Has any of you ever seen/tested this mount before?

Cheers

[Helvetius]

TS (Germany) came back with their advice on using Nextar DX mount for DSO photography: not suitable...
This mount is actually installed on the Nextar 4SE and 5SE and is fitted with a spur gear, no worm gear.
TS recommends a Vixen GP-E instead. Reported PE is around 13" and nicely periodic.
I will motorize it with Nanotec stepper motors and a custom home made drive controller Goto capable (Pic-Astro).
For the scope, I will take the Celestron C80ED over the Saxon/Orion for its compactness, despite the rack & pinion focuser.

Total cost for scope-mount-drive will be 1200 Euros (A$2000)

Thanks again for your input

[astroboy]

Hi
I somtimes get imagers from Asia visiting here and because they often have to get to their site by public transport they have similar concerns.
They tend to use Tak spaceboys and good fast APOs like a sky90 etc a bit on the expensive side but have a look at Borg and Kenko stuff very light wieght and portable , I think Huteh sells them both , those other cheap mounts ( like the AZ3 ) would try the patience of a saint.
The GP-E could be good but isn't it quite heavy.

Zane

[Helvetius]

"The mount head weighs 3.9kgs. It carries telescopes up to approx. 8kgs (depending on the lever arm). " (Quote from TS)
Counterweights and tripod can be fixed locally.

So I reach :
- C80ED: 2.1 kg
- CP4500: 0.4kg
- Vixen GP-E head: 3.9 kg
- motors and controler: 0.6kg
- bits & pieces: 1 kg
Total: an optimistic 8 kg

I assume this is the minimum price to be paid for DSO imaging.
Would be happy someone proves me wrong.

Asian imagers seem to be rich people; their mount alone is more expensive than all my stuff...
The Borg / Kenko Portable Photo System is given for "short exposure photo" only.