VIDEO: Talk about THE MODERN ALT-AZ MOUNT held by Niels Haagh at The Practical Astronomy Show 2019

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This is a video recording of a talk about the Modern Alt-Az mount held at The Practical Astronomy Show in March 2019. Actually, the recording was made a few weeks later when I repeated the talk at The Astronomical Society of Copenhagen. Unfortunately, the video quality is not perfect but I hope it can be useful anyway. The video is rather long so here is the timing if you want to jump to certain sections: Introduction My Journey into amateur astronomy (01:24) Comparison of Polar aligned and Alt-Az Mounts (05:05) Summing up the Comparison (19:12) Alt-Az short exposure Astrophotography (20:39) Alt-Az long exposure Astrophotography (30:41) Summing up (38:30). […]

Alt-Az mounts for long exposure astrophotography – Camera rotators

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In this post we will look at the most advanced type of Alt-Az astrophotography using camera rotators – if you have any questions or comments, write them at the bottom of the page or send me an email. In the earlier post “Astrophotography with Alt-Az telescope mounts”, the possibilities for taking astrophotos with Alt-Az mounts were introduced. There are two basic approaches. 1. Take multiple short exposures to eliminate the effects of field rotation (read more) 2. Use a rotator device to rotate the camera and achieve precise equatorial tracking If you wonder why we want to image with an Alt-Az mount see this post “The modern Alt-Az telescope mount – Easy, fast and precise” The first […]

NEAF 2019 – Meet the Panther Mount

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The Panther Mount will be on display at the Booth of Cloud Break Optics.

Alt-Az mounts for long exposure astrophotography – Telescope rotators

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The trip into Alt-Az astrophotography continues – if you have any questions or comments, write them at the bottom of the page or send me an email. In the earlier post “Astrophotography with Alt-Az telescope mounts”, the possibilities for taking astrophotos with Alt-Az mounts were introduced. There are two basic approaches. 1. Take multiple short exposures to eliminate the effects of field rotation (read more) 2. Use a rotator device to rotate the camera and achieve precise equatorial tracking If you wonder why we want to image with an Alt-Az mount see this post “The modern Alt-Az telescope mount – Easy, fast and precise” The first principle has already been described in an earlier […]

SkyFi adapter on TTS mounts

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Lots of TTS mount users enjoys using a SkyFi adapter and the SkySari app. We have made a short guide on how to set up and use this system.

TTS-160, TTS-300 SkyFi connection

Short exposure Alt-Az Astrophotography – learn how to get great results

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You can take great astrophotos using your Alt-Az mount – learn how here If you own an Alt-Az mount, you most likely think “It cannot be used for deep sky astrophotography”. But that is not correct. It is possible to take wonderful deep sky images with an Alt-Az mount if you know how to do it and pick the right objects. As with any astronomy equipment, the quality of the mount (stability, tracking accuracy), telescope and camera will of course have an influence on the final result. But with good knowledge and persistence, you can take great images even with modest equipment. This article will explain how. In this post, I will look into the following subjects: Equipment considerations Alt-Az mount tracking Guiding an Alt-Az mount Influence of field rotation How […]

Astrophotography with Alt-Az telescope mounts

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You may have learned that for taking good astrophotos, you need a polar aligned mount preferably a German equatorial mount. But with new high-quality Alt-Az mounts, this is no longer true. New technologies introduced in Alt-Az mounts mean they can deliver precise equatorial tracking while maintaining the basic advantages of the Alt-Az mount (read more about these advantages and a comparison to Polar aligned mount here). Tracking needed for precise astrophotography One of the first challenges when taking astrophotos is to achieve good tracking. Without good tracking of the object imaged, the rest […]

Review in BBC Sky at Night Magazine November 2018

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The TTS-160 Panther mount with telescope rOTAtor was reviewed by BBC Sky at Night Magazine in the November 2018 issue.

See the Magazine here (paid solution) 

The review resulted in a very satisfactory score of 4.5 stars out of 5.

See the 360 degree photo of the mount made by the magazine.

The modern Alt-Az telescope mount – Easy, fast and precise

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The Alt-Az mount is gaining fame again after many years in the shadow of the polar aligned parallactic mount. The ever-increasing possibilities within computer control have made it possible to design Alt-Az mounts capable of delivering precise equatorial tracking. Having the simple mechanical principles of the Alt-Az mount, these new mounts offer easier transport and faster setup than the typical polar-aligned mount. Setting up an Alt-Az telescope mount – no levelling needed Basically, an Alt-Az mount has a vertical azimuth axle and a horizontal altitude axle. However, this does not need to be precise with many newer mounts where the software handles the alignment. Therefore, […]

The comeback of the Alt-Az telescope mount

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This is the first article in a small series that will focus on the use and possibilities of Altitude-Azimuth (Alt-Az) telescope mounts. First, the basic overview will be created and in the coming articles, more details on the actual use and possibilities of the modern Alt-Az mount will be covered. The historic view The very first telescope mounts made were Alt-Az mounts. Logically, it is the easiest way to mount a telescope to get a compact and stable base. For astronomical telescopes, the need for tracking the objects across the sky led to the invention of the Polar-aligned Parallactic Mount. In the times of no computer control, the fixed speed drive needed for the polar aligned mount was easy […]