Rerouter
21-10-2021, 01:20 PM
TLDR. Looking for as compact and lightweight a motorised al-az mount as I can get for a 9KG setup. But needs to use stepper motors and have low backlash. Budget is up to 3.5K
For some background. I use a telescope to shoot terrestial panoramas that are 400-800 Gigapixel. However I am currently doing that with a modified EQ5 mount for the low backlash and high steps per axis. Issue is. It is a very heavy thing to drag up mountains. So Im looking for something more compact and ideal for the purpose.
The mount I currently control using a heavily modified motion controller with baked in panorama controls and focus planning that i had to hand code as it seems no one else does this kind of thing. so no need to drag a laptop up. But it uses stepper motor signals. So want a new mount that I can plug it in to. Thus the stepper motors instead of servos, technically a step and direction input would be workable
The images are pretty quick. About 1/500 to 1/640 exposure time. So settling time is less of an issue. Its more backlash and positioning accuracy that are my limiting factors. Right now my pixel scale is only half an arc second. So the lower the backlash. The less overlap I need and the faster I can shoot the 50,000 odd photos. Motion speeds of only 1 degree per second would be workable. But better than 5 would be ideal.
Would prefer a fork over an unsupported arm as wind is an issue. Or better yet some base pivot. But Ill take any suggestions that get close. Even if its suggestions of places that can CNC up something like it
For some background. I use a telescope to shoot terrestial panoramas that are 400-800 Gigapixel. However I am currently doing that with a modified EQ5 mount for the low backlash and high steps per axis. Issue is. It is a very heavy thing to drag up mountains. So Im looking for something more compact and ideal for the purpose.
The mount I currently control using a heavily modified motion controller with baked in panorama controls and focus planning that i had to hand code as it seems no one else does this kind of thing. so no need to drag a laptop up. But it uses stepper motor signals. So want a new mount that I can plug it in to. Thus the stepper motors instead of servos, technically a step and direction input would be workable
The images are pretty quick. About 1/500 to 1/640 exposure time. So settling time is less of an issue. Its more backlash and positioning accuracy that are my limiting factors. Right now my pixel scale is only half an arc second. So the lower the backlash. The less overlap I need and the faster I can shoot the 50,000 odd photos. Motion speeds of only 1 degree per second would be workable. But better than 5 would be ideal.
Would prefer a fork over an unsupported arm as wind is an issue. Or better yet some base pivot. But Ill take any suggestions that get close. Even if its suggestions of places that can CNC up something like it