I built it out of steel, and as it wasn't ever painted, it began to lightly rust as well. Since it was going to be powered by me, I printed off a clock face, put it on a jar lid, which is held in place by gravity and a skateboard wheel bearing, on which turns a nut that has bicycle spokes welded to it to facilitate ease of use for the nut doing all this I also know that somewhere I have an old ball head for a camera, but I simply cant find it. I used two "L" brackets to mimic the motion of that item, though the bottom bracket should be longer. I drilled out a piece of plastic for the camera to sit on; it's screwed into the bracket on the side. The camera is a Canon T3 (1100D) with the stock 18-55mm lens.
Pictures might be easier. I built the mount as well; that's about 5 years ago now. It all rides on bearings, both the alt and az movements can be locked into place, and no tools required to take it apart/put it together.
Tonight was supposed to be crystal clear, blah, blah; yeah well, that really didn't work out for me. Kinda soupy, temperature was a balmy 23F (-5C), and it was somewhat windy to boot. This should be fun. I was tempted to not bother, but everything was upstairs, I had winter clothes on, then my wife started asking questions about what I was doing, so I figured time to go outside and brave those elements
I could see the Orion constellation, and could barely make out the Pleiades. I focused the camera on Rigel as best I could at ISO 3200, and mounted the camera to the tracker, hoping the camera lens would keep focus.
We all know how that's gonna work out...
Next, I got Polaris lined up through the two holes in the half a hinge I use for that. It was really a lot easier than I though it would be. I then turned the camera in the direction of the Pleiades. Now I was all set.
Except for one thing. The clock I was going to use, which makes a fairly audible "tic" sound every second, is in the shed, which is locked. The keys are on the kitchen table. Inside. My wife is there too, probably with even more questions. Ah, crap.
Well, there's always plan B!!
I hold the remote shutter with one hand, one of my gloved fingers on the tip of a bicycle spoke with the other hand, and start saying to myself,"One mississippi, two mississippi......", turning the spoke a notch at the end of every mississippi
I took 10 shots of that, ranging from 10 to 30 seconds. Next I turned to the Orion constellation and had a go at that; five pictures from 10 to 15 seconds of exposure.
Well, enough of this, It's not getting any clearer or warmer out here. I pick up the whole mess and carry it in. Oh, there's my wife; quelle suprise. She means so well, but really all I want to do is go downstairs and see if this worked. Yes dear, no dear, don't know if they came out yet dear, going downstairs now dear,
Ok. The focus is off, the sensor/lens needs a cleaning (again!), the
And 15 seconds of Orion:
I was going to go back out and try it again with better focus and my clock, but by the time I got upstairs, it was even "soupier" out, and no warmer. My long term forecast isn't looking good, but the next time it is, I might take all this with a laptop for focusing to a park I know of near lake Ontario. Maybe I can get me some Messiers
And that's it for my ramble; I wish you all the best and clear skies!