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 […]

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 […]

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 […]