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What to do with left over's.
Hi,
I needed to make something portable to do wide filed imaging away from the observatory. So I decided to make a motor driven mount from the left over’s I had laying around.
The old german equatorial mount is from a 1972, 4” reflector. The tripod which is very sturdy, is an old field survey tripod. The drive motor is a 240v synchronise motor 1 rpm, this was used to stir chemicals. Large white drive wheel, is a plastic wheel from the hardware store, which I turned down and grooved to take a rubber belt for the drive.
The camera mount is constructed from a car mirror ball hinge, and the finder scope is a 50mm binocular lens, housed in pvc pipe fittings. Counter balance weight is a flat belt drum pulley.
I used it last night for the first time, and I’m quite happy with the results. I roughly polar aligned, and managed shots up 210 sec each. Of course there is some star trailing, but I’ll sort this out with better polar alignment, and refinement of the drive speed. The best thing of all, it only cost me a can of spray paint.
Images,
Orion, 3 x 210 sec exp, Canon 1100D 18mm lens at f/5.
Eta Carina rising 5 x 90 sec exp, Canon 1100D 18mm lens at f/5.
Cheers,
Justin.
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