SingAstro

Hi All,

I'm new to astro photography and been doing star trails photography and time lapse photography some time. I heard a girl in the June 15th star gazing using a tripod mount that increments for as low as 1 degrees (or depends how you setup it) X,Y axis via a small cabled remote. She doesn't even need to touch the scope but shes using the cable remote to move her scope sideways and up and the good thing is she can time the movements automatically too.

Anyone can direct me whats the brand she's using?

I'm looking forward in mounting some heavy dslr lens and heavy dslr camera's on top of it. Probably around 8 pounds of load.

I'm looking for a moderate quality to top quality tripod heads. Also, is there a place in singapore that specializes in such items? All the camera shops in funan doesn't have those. I tried to google it or search it here but I Just don't understand whether its the correct item i'm looking for...

Please help, thank you.

garbled wrote:Hi All,

I'm new to astro photography and been doing star trails photography and time lapse photography some time. I heard a girl in the June 15th star gazing using a tripod mount that increments for as low as 1 degrees (or depends how you setup it) X,Y axis via a small cabled remote. She doesn't even need to touch the scope but shes using the cable remote to move her scope sideways and up and the good thing is she can time the movements automatically too.

Anyone can direct me whats the brand she's using?

I'm looking forward in mounting some heavy dslr lens and heavy dslr camera's on top of it. Probably around 8 pounds of load.

I'm looking for a moderate quality to top quality tripod heads. Also, is there a place in singapore that specializes in such items? All the camera shops in funan doesn't have those. I tried to google it or search it here but I Just don't understand whether its the correct item i'm looking for...

Please help, thank you.

You could be referring to a simple German Equatorial Mount with tracking motors or with built in GOTO electronic mechanical device ...

http://www.company7.com/vixen/mounts.html

i think Sony makes such a tripod (basically it is an alt-az mount with electronic slow-motion controls).

it is not really suitable for astrophotography.

Important question: Are you looking for a dual use (i.e. daytime and astrophotography) head or just for astrophotography?
Unfortunately, x-y moving heads are not really the best for long-exposure because in addition to moving, the sky rotates as well so a long exposure mount must be able to compensate for the rotation. These are generally Equatorial Mounts. The cable control is just a little computer to move motors in the mount and is fairly common for equatorial mounts
If you want to do daytime work however, then an equatorial mount is not the mount of choice. Still usable but framing is much more difficult and the mount will be much heavier, not to mention you'll have to target in circular co-ordinates, not x-y. I think you'll be much happier with just a normal pan/tilt tripod head for this application )

How able this, AstroTrac Guide Mount TT320X-AG (Made in UK) .

http://www.astrotrac.com/Default.aspx?p=tt320x-ag -> 340 pounds or

http://www.grandeye.com.hk/astrotrac.htm -> HK$3k+

after compiling all your suggestions...this leads me to the below:

Orion TeleTrack GoTo Altazimuth Telescope Mount,

its simple and can accomodate a heavy dslr/lens too. This should be enough add up and down tilts motion on the timelapse project i'm working on.

Thanks all for your help. cheers!