Expert: Paul Wagner - 3/2/2006

Question
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Followup To
Question -
Is it possible to take some good deep sky pictures tracking manually? If possible, how could that be achieved? I have an ETX-70 and a 4.5" reflector with equatorial mount.
Thank you.
Answer -
HI Alex:

The answer is yes...but not through your scope.  Attach a nice SLR camera to it, don't use a telephoto, and take nice large scale sky pictures by tracking the scope manually at high power while the shutter is open on the SLR.  

Or just take pictures of the moon.  Otherwise, you will get too much motion for photography without a motorized mount...and even then, you have to make small adjustments all the time through a high power eyepiece.

Paul Wagner

Follow up:

Thank you for answering so quickly. I am going to try the piggiback method because I haven't try it. In case I want to get into deep sky picture, do you think that by adding this motor 'TrueTrack Dual-Axis DC Drive System" to my reflector is going to help me?
And for my ETX70 that already has a tracking motor, will a "Radial guider" be enough to take some deep sky pictures.

Thank you again for your valuable time.


Answer
Hi Alex:

The piggy back method will give you some good results--I know, because I have done it!

Both of your other scopes are pretty small to use to really high-end astrophotography.  If you keep your goals low ( brighter objects, not too long trackiong periods) then you can have some success...but astrophotography is a long process to learn.  Don't expect your first efforts to turn out well.  Instead, figure that you are going to spend a lot of time learning...and learning.

A good CCD camera will shorten both your tracking times and your learning curve...but will also shorten your bank account!

Paul Wagner