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Newbie Question: Polarie as a field derotator on AltAz Skywatcher AllView mount?
Hi folks,
My first post after a recent investment in astronomy gear, so please be gentle.
I bought a Vixen Polarie and Vixen VMC110L earlier this year. The Polarie has been great with a Nikon D600 sitting on it. I have some lovely long exposure wide field shots. My Bahtinov mask arrived yesterday so am looking forward to less expletives around the campsite as I no longer struggle to get good focus on stars at 16mm.
The VMC110L has been fun, on a heavy duty Manfrotto tripod with geared head. But chasing Jupiter across the heavens (remember, drag the sky to you!) is not much fun after a while.
So on Friday I took delivery of a fabulous Skywatcher Allview AltAz mount so my daytime panoramas and nighttime astronomy can be satisfied with the one mount.
I was prepared to compromise the long exposures on my telescope with camera mounted at prime focus on the AltAz AllView. I understood the field rotation that I would experience.
But after seeing a picture of a Meade Field Derotater, mounted at the back of a scope, it occurred to me that perhaps with my Nikon mounted on the AllView, the Polarie could somehow be utilised to eliminate field rotation?
Am I missing something fundamental here, or is there a possible configuration?
I am racking my brain regarding alignment with the SCP and how that obviously goes once the altaz mount slews to a particular star, but if the field rotation occurs at a fixed rate, that the Polarie at its fixed sidereal rate in the other direction, will counter it, even without polar alignment.
Many thanks to someone that might be able to set me straight!
Cheers
Ivan
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