Piggybacking Camera to current scope setup for widefield
Hi there
Some advice please on how best to do this.
I am looking at doing some widefield work using my Nikon Z camera and camera lenses. I want to mount my camera onto the top plate of my scope. This way I can take it on and off without having to remove my usual setup off the mount.
Physically I plan on bolting a heavy duty ballhead to the top plate and clamping in my camera. That should be solid. I will be using lenses between 14-200mm so nothing super heavy or long.
I am mostly concerned about how I manage the imaging run. I wasn’t planning to image through the main scope and my ZWO camera at the same time, though was going to use my scope setup to guide if required.
I am using NINA which does apparently allow multiple instances to run if required and I have confirmed that the Nikon will connect through NINA but haven’t fully tested it yet.
I will have to do things like focusing manually but am happy to automate what I can.
I can think of several ways of attempting this and I don’t want to overcomplicate it.
I can just connect to the scope as usual, find the target and then manually fire away with the camera, allowing the mount to do its thing
Or I could connect as usual, get on target area and then in another instance of NINA use the sequencer to control the Nikon
Any better ideas?
How do I handle multi night shooting on a target? After framing my shot with the Nikon I then take an image through the scope and save it so I can platesolve that later and put me back on target the next night, assuming I haven’t moved the ballhead orientation between nights?
How would I do mosaics in an automated way?
If anyone is doing the above and thought these problems through your experience and advice would be very welcome.
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