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I got my new mount last night and it seems to be working perfectly. Seeing doesn't look too good for tonight in my area. I might not be able to do much.

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com

Glad to see your new mount is working ok. Ive still yet to purcahse mine, but it wont be long now!

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

hey guys,

would something like this and a dslr be sufficient for long exposures? also, if you scroll down a bit on that page and look under "Frequently bought together" items, it says that customers buy the Orion EQ-1M Electronic Drive System along with the mount...is the drive system necessary? what does it do? do i need anything additional?

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Im not sure what level of results you would get with this. In order to get exposures of around 120sec you would need a mount that will track, this will compensate for the earths rotation (sidereal). This mount has manual controls therefore wont track (not without adding motors, which as listed as the frequently brought items) This, however brings me onto the next issue. It is table top mounted therefore I would imagine will only be as stable as your table and this will depend on the surface as well. Overall it looks too flimsy for AP especially with a DSLR.

My scope was originally mounted on an EQ1 mount and flimsy tripod. Although I often glimpsed saturn and jupiter it fell far shot offering wobbly shots and big fluctuations.

I dont to true and put too much of a dampner on it and you might find that for the price of it, it may be worth it but dont be too dissapointed if your shots dont turn out as you may have hoped.

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

so the only bad thing about this setup would be unstableness? i assume it would have even more problems when a telescope is mounted on a dslr (would it become too heavy to track?)

other than that, it would track automatically without any problems (even for exposures lasting 10-12 hours)?

i was also wondering...without a telescope, what kind of photos would be possible? certainly not planetary...but how about galaxies, nebulae or star clusters? (considering im using the above setup but without a telescope)

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Unstableness is an issue and its a major one - you never hear anyone whinge about a mount being too stable!!! The size of a mount will limit the size of the scope you can put on in. I would also be dubious about the table top mounting. IMO the mount will be too close to the table thus when a scope is mounted you may be limited to what you can see without the scope colliding with your table.

Also a heavy scope will put strain on the mount causing the gears to slip and it to lose its accuracy. That said even with the best mount you are only going to be limited to a couple of minutes of expsoure without autoguiding. Autoguiding adds a whole other dimension to AP and can be a topic all in itself for discussion, but basically a mount that tracks (sidereal) will have some inherent error, due to inaccurate polar alignment for example. Autoguiding will allow these errors to be corrected thus increasing the length of exposure time available. However to autoguide you will need a second scope and CCD camera adding more and more to the weight loaded on the mount.

I dont think the above setup with a telescope and dslr mounted will yield promising results. However if you already have the scope and dslr you may want to give it a punt and see what happens. Im sure it will ignite any passion for AP and you will soon be searching for ways to improve.

That said if you are serious about AP then I would be tempted to do a bit more research and save up some more pennies and think about getting an EQ5 or EQ6 mount, these are very stable by all accounts and will serve you well if you want to dabble in AP with some gusto.

Let me know if there is anything else you want to discuss

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

alright thanks a lot for your help

im starting to save up for my first dslr and hoping to buy one in a couple months or so...but given so many choices of entry level dslrs these days, im having a hard time, just like the majority of people

the biggest problem/confusion im facing is whether or not i would be serious into astrophotography...as far as i know, live view is important when photographing the moon or planets with a scope mounted on a dslr right? or can i get by without live view?

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No problems.

I dont want to put you off your choice, merely point out where you might find frustrations in your choice. As I said before it may be worth a punt. Given your situation I would seriously suggest hunting out your local astonomy society as you may be able to use some of their equipment to try out how you would get on with AP.

As for live view I can certainly see its benefits. Whether its essential is for debate and each person will have their own opinion on that.

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

yes...before investing in astrophotography equipment, its wise to go and see what local astronomy clubs have to offer

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I think my original post was spot on on the equipment you need. Anything below that will be unsatisfactory in long exposure. A CCD Camera like the Orion Starshoot Autoguiding combine with a 80mm short scope makes it easier for program like PHD to track your target.

This is the list of what I have so far :

C8 SCT
HEQ5 PRO
Sky-watcher 80mm Shot scope
Canon 40D
T-ring and T-adapter

This is for prime focus. You can also do Afocal which is going through an eyepiece with a Eye piece projection extender.

http://www.telescope.com/control/produc ... t_id=05125

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com