Quote:
Originally Posted by mental4astro
Hi Stefan,
If this is a planetary scope, why would you bother with an equatorial set up or a de-rotator? I would have thought that both the exposure times being so short are not a problem and the imaging software takes care of any rotation in the stacking and alignment process. I have no such issues with this and I only use an altaz mount for lunar and planetary imaging. If things can be kept simple and technology gives you an advantage this way, why then go with an eq rig? Or am I missing something?
Alex.
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Alex you are correct regarding the lack of need of a derotator for planetary imaging. Software can take care of that but when I designed this scope that was not the case.
When I think about the simplicity of a system, I also include the software that makes it work. For an off the shelf system who cares what's under the bonnet, but this is a large DIY instrument and I have to rely on open source solutions to drive it. The old Bartels drive is very obsolete and an EQ mount can be driven even by a simple Arduino clock drive if no GOTO is required.
Another thing I didn't like about the Alt-Az was the fact that during lunar imaging it was difficult to know which way were the cardinal directions.
With an EQ mount I can have the camera lined up and it will not change orientation.