ive been thinking alot latey on ways i can improve and to start astrophotography, what do you guys think about geting a big chunky EQ GTO mount, and then going to the hardware store to buy some wood, and stick that big chunk of a 12" scope ontop of it? i find myself using my 6" just because it has a EQ mount. by all means im sure i could do it, i dont have many problems when it comes to crafts, then when im up to that part ill have to think about what i want to do next, most likey start with geting a camera and assential wares.
It'll want to be a damn big and chunky EQ to start with. EQ6 would probably stuggle a bit for astrophotography with a 12" OTA sitting in it. For stability alone I would consider getting proper tube rings and dovetail to suit, rather than cobble one together out of wood.
What's the 6" scope your using? If it's a reflector and you are looking at getting into DSO imaging then you could certainly do a lot worse than starting there. 6" is plenty of aperture to start with. The bigger your scope the more robust your mount needs to be. An eq6 would handle a 6" relfector np at all. A 12" though would be a real struggle astrophotographically speaking. Not even sure a Losmandy G11 would be suitable. It might carry the weight for astrophotography, probably, but the lever arm movement would be too much for it I would think.
This is a pic of my 12.5" newt, on my home built EQ. the mount alone weighs in close to 150kg. And even this mount finds it hard to keep her steady enough to do astrophotography. It's ok for visual use.
I must admit, the OTA alone weighs 40 kg. More heavier than a 12" GSO OTA I would imagine.
As 1ponders suggests, it's the lever arm action that kills it. It it we're in an observatory rather than outside it would work...the slightest breeze is enough to bring an imaging session to a complete stand still.
now that looks nice, anyone have any suggestions for some very heavy strong computerized motor mount rings+dovetail for a 12" or parts that be used for a 12" that are very strong and stable, im sure with a long enouth rings and enouth counterweights it should hold up with a very sturdy mount, im sure some scmit rings are probly as large as 12" just gotta find some long thick ones, a slow motor would do alot better on friction then a faster one, personally only thing i want the motor for really would be photography, would be cool to let it dirft too
yeah by far the gso is alot lighter, the dob mount is the heavyest peice of the gso, physics is used in astronomy, you can use it to stabilise your scope too
You could certainly find a mount that would carry your 12" Adrian. It would depend on how much you were willing to spend, or how much time you were willing to put to building one.
Might I suggest that you ascertain the weight of your proposed OTA, you then need to double it, to account for cameras etc. Then check out the carrying capacities of whatever mount you are looking at, for astrophotograhy you really need a mount with atleast 1/3 more carrying capacity than the combined weight of your equipment, suggestions...maybe a G-11, capacity - 30Kgs, probably not, EG-6, 25Kgs - probably not, Losmandy Titan, yes, 160lbs from memory, cost, well, this is the killer, $10,000 - $11,000, Assen Technolgies, more. As you can see, it starts to get expensive real quick. If you can hold of an old AO GEM, can't remember the name now, you might be able to upgrade the motors. Rings and dovetails, check this site http://www.parallaxinstruments.com/
Lever arm movement has been mentioned, you need to carry the weight as close to the head as possible, put most of your weight up there and place a lighter one down further for balance, the reason, simply to stop the motors from ocillating when making a correction, the further you have the weight down the shaft, the more it takes to stop a motor and reverse it's direction.
the EQ6 mount can carry up to 40lbs, anyone know how much kg's a lb is? and how many lbs or kgs a 12" gso newt tube is?
i would allways end up buying a tracking platform tho
One kilogram is 2.2 pounds I believe. And I think a GSO 12" F/5 newt has a weight of 15kg => somewhere around 33 pounds. Keep in mind that you are dealing with a pretty large tube so the slightest breeze can make the tube move.
Back here in Europe we have the OTE150, a nice German EQ mount with a PE of +-5" (not sure though). It costs as much as a G11 but can handle 70 pounds visual and 55 photographical. A dealer puts 14" F/4 newts on it and sells them as "perfect" imaging platform. To bad it's as ugly as hell .
Hi Kieken, I am heading down this path myself in the future, and I don't give a flying fat rats attitude as to how ugly it is, it is the view in the EP that counts. Do you have a link?
What are you talking about the GSO is a Wonderfull looking Trash ca... errr i mean telescope, some people make there shower caps ,dewcaps for there gso
Here you have the German page of the OTE150. I'm still looking for a decent English page but I think it's pretty obvious what you can find there. If there are problems with language or so just pm me.
EDIT: This guy uses the OTE150 in combination with a 10" F/4.8 for shooting pictures. Again, this site is in German.
EDIT 2: This guy uses a 12" newt on the OTE150. But I guess it's an F/4 and lightweight.
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