Sky At Night

Hi, i'm very much the novice here, with next to no equiptment and even less money to spend but i'm interested in some astrophotography. I understand that you need a decent exposure time to capture anything other than bright sky objects, but to avoid trails you then need some sort of tracking mount. Anyway my question is, is it possible to build such a mount, from scratch, or with some parts, to cut costs. What would you suggest? Kit plans would be nice, pictures, maybe a web link or even some equations but i'm not expecting there to be any of that haha so advice is greatly appreciated .

Yes, it is possible to build an equatorial mount from scratch. However, unless you have a lathe, and can mill metal to a fine degree it isn't possible to build a precise mount for photography through a telescope.

If you are using a 50mm lens, or less on a camera, and you want to track for several minutes then precision isn't so important. It is possible to built an old fashioned 'barn door' mount which will do the job. (Stick 'barn door mount' in a search engine).

Alternatively look for a small broken telescope whose electronic mount is still operating. It will be very cheap.

okay - thanks a lot, I will keep my eye out for something Ican salvage from an old telescope, but in the meantime I will look into a barn door mount :)

Hi,

It depends on what you consider a lot of money. You can pick up equatorial mounts on ebay for £30 if you're patient. Or if you don't mind picking up a telescope as well - £20! For some reason mountings on their own sell for more than a mounted telescope!

Have a look for Bresser Skylux 70mm Refractors - They usually sell for about £20 - 35 and have a nice Eq3 mounting. (I know because I've bought a few - By the way, if you research it and find that the same telescope has been sold for £75 also on eBay - That's because I'm a better salesman than the people i buy from :o)

If you want some advice about buying telescopes from eBay (I've never bought a bad one) PM me and I'll happily tell you my secret to getting astro stuff for peanuts (PS See my thread 'Astronomy Doesn't Have to be Expensive' in S'N forums).

Cheers, Barry Cooper

anyone has link on ebay?