Widefield Imaging Platform

[TidaLpHasE]

Hi All, i have made a quick cheap and nasty adapter for my eq5 to hold my cameras for widefield imaging.

The cameras are rock solid on the dovetail bar, and have just enough room to clear each other, and remote cords.

When i polar align, do the cameras have to be shooting straight down the field of the mount? or can i rotate them seperately from each other to image different targets at the same time?

I have seen other cameras mounted on eq mounts twisted away from each other to cover different fields of view.

Or is it once i have decent polar alignment of the mount, i can aim anywhere in the sky and have decent tracking?

Any comments or advice greatly appreciated. thanks.

Trevor.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Theoretically you should be able to point each camera anywhere in the sky you want and it should work. Your success will depend on a how well you are polar aligned and how precise the 90 deg angle is between your RA and DEC axis.

If you are guiding using a guidescope and if both are perfect then you should have np but if your DEC is out and you are guiding for one camera then the other will show field rotation.

[TidaLpHasE]

Thanks Paul, i won't be guiding at all, just pointing and shooting.

Not too sure how accurate the 90 degree angle will be though, there's not much to go by to get it accurate.

Experiments are on the way.

Thanks again.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

If you get your drift alignment as accurate as you can, and keep the mount slightly weighty on the eastern side and you haven't got too bad a periodic error you should be right