Astronomy with a portable camera?

[steve h]

I have an old 5Mp camera which has good night shot so I simply rested it on a towel and pointed it at full zoom towards the Pleiades star cluster. I set it to 10 second timer so I could step back from it. It would then be steady enough to take a long exposure shot of the pitch blackness. I got quite a good shot of the Seven Sisters where much more than the 7 main stars are visible. I realised its much better than my eyes at seeing it. Any other handy tips for this sort of amateur portable camera work? What else is good to photograph? What portable cameras are best for night shot?

[admin]

Hello steve welcome to the forums

I once had a book a while back that had instructions on how to make a wood stand for a SLR along with a motor that would track the sky.

I will try to find the plans for this but you should be able to find these instructions somewhere. Either way you can take long exposures using this setup.

Let us know if you have access to a goto telescope with tracking that would be your best option but ill look out for the camera tracking device plans.

[Vinnie]

Its called a Barn Door Mount

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[Vinnie]

Here's another design

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[Vinnie]

And some more sophisticated versions

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[Registered users can see links. ]

[Registered users can see links. ]

[Michael Steen]

Thanks, Vinnie! Really great plans. However, my first building project when I get back from vacation is going to be a Denver observing chair. Goodbye, sore back!

[bigastronomy]

what's a denver observing chair? i'm intrigued! any plans online available?

[Carlos_dfc]

Hiya 'Big'

A 'Denver' chair is basically a folding 'A' frame chair - where the 'A' section is what you see from the side (hinged at the top)
A seat sticks out the front, and notches are cut into the rear of the front 'leg' so that the height of the seat can be adjusted.

Here's a pic of one

[Michael Steen]

Yup, that's exactly what I was planning to build. And, yes, plans are available online at <http://members.tripod.com/denverastro/seat.html>

[admin]

Originally Posted by Vinnie

Its called a Barn Door Mount

Barndoor Mount

yup! thats it its the Barn Door Mount man bring back memories. I want one of those as its probably the easiest and cheapest way to generates photos without a scope / eq mount.