| Joined: | Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 |
| Location: | South Lakeland, UK |
| Posts: | 4066 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
JK, all input is welcome, it's the wilder ideas that sometimes crack the nut.
Nature produces the occasional freak, that's how evolution works, occasionally the freak fits a niche, then it's no longer a freak, it thrives.I am even considering using a EPSU (Electronic Power Steering Unit) to act as a servo motor to amplify the output from the relatively low power output from the Vixen motor, I just checked out the price of the current Vixen super model it's about £2500 and weighs 7 Kg, my mount with wedge weighs about half that.
It's probably a step further than I need but I thought of it on my way back from Lancaster on Sunday night. The EPSU takes the input torque and amplifies it if needed, otherwise it remains passive. I don't think it will affect the speed of rotation and the torque assistance is fairly easily adjustable. After all, we are only talking about a quarter of a turn for a six hour session.
I am also thinking of ways of making rock solid mount. Tripod isn't really solid enough for this sort of thing. Most serious astronomers have a pillar, a heavy tube buried in the ground or attached to a very large block of concrete like a pile. That's the only way to get a really stable place to lock the camera (or telescope) down. I may be taking my drill with me next time I venture into the hills!
On a different aspect I really have to consider where I am going. I don't want to become an astronomer, I do have an interest in astronomy but I feel once you have looked at one star you won't see much difference with the next! I would however like to be able to make nicer Milky Way images, combined with nice landscapes, or even rock formations such as the stacked boulders in your recent images. I would also like to photograph the gas clouds like the Orion nebula and some of the other more visible nebula. Possibly Saturn? The Moon? But photography has to remain at the centre of these activities. I'm a bit like a butterfly, constantly flitting from one subject to another, but that's what I enjoy, fresh challenges.
____________________
Robert.