Can I be mad and mount a Geared head on a ball head?

[cantaresg]

Now I see your issue. But I don't understand your purpose actually. So you wanted to find a setup for astrophotography? If that's the case, are you going to track the stars? Are you piggybacking the camera onto your refractor?

In any case, an equatorial mount seems to be a better choice, since if you are properly polar aligned, if you can have the RA/ DEC markings on the mount, it makes tracking so much easier. Perhaps the ball head can be modified into an equatorial?

 

[psychobiologist]

not exactly a setup for astrophotog alone but for observation too

the camera is piggy backed on either a scope via a t-ring/adapt mount, or on a long prime with a couple of 2x converters

my gf mounts her scope on a normal camera tripod, and the ball head's actually pretty versatile in all directions, up down left right, but lacks precision in this case. normally i would just get her to point at this star cluster or that planet etc, and having a ball head would be very convenient for moving around quick.

so i'm actually just thinking of the possibility of combining the same flexibility of a ball head with the possibility of precise adjustments when required, i.e. one tripod settles it all, can view, can use for scope, can use for photography.

the equatorial mount is.. huge.. and heavy with the counter weight.. and i cant imagine bringing.. a tripod with an equatorial mount.. and a separate ball head for photography, i.e. have to screw on and off the head.. swap them.. troublesome..

 

[StrifeYun]

hmmm can buy a table top equatorial mount? hee, think its about $50 USD hmm but also not so stable, even though got weight counter.

 

[CYRN]

self make your own sort of eq mount... juz add counterweight to your setup.

once it's properly balanced, minor adjustments are finer.

 

[lsisaxon]

not exactly a setup for astrophotog alone but for observation too

the camera is piggy backed on either a scope via a t-ring/adapt mount, or on a long prime with a couple of 2x converters

my gf mounts her scope on a normal camera tripod, and the ball head's actually pretty versatile in all directions, up down left right, but lacks precision in this case. normally i would just get her to point at this star cluster or that planet etc, and having a ball head would be very convenient for moving around quick.

so i'm actually just thinking of the possibility of combining the same flexibility of a ball head with the possibility of precise adjustments when required, i.e. one tripod settles it all, can view, can use for scope, can use for photography.

the equatorial mount is.. huge.. and heavy with the counter weight.. and i cant imagine bringing.. a tripod with an equatorial mount.. and a separate ball head for photography, i.e. have to screw on and off the head.. swap them.. troublesome..

If you're shooting prime focus through a scope or a long telephoto, then you can forget about this kind of setup. Without proper polar alignment using an equatorial mount with motors for tracking, it is near impossible to get good image. Even when the polar alignment is slightly off, you're not going to get sharp images beyond a few seconds of exposure. Even experienced astronomers/astrophotographers can take up to an hour to do a proper polar alignment before they start shooting or they will use an off-axis guiding attachment to manually guide the scope during the exposure.

I suggest you pay a visit to AstroScientific Centre and talk to Albert Lim and ask him for some advice or talk to some people from SingAstro or TASOS, maybe join them for their outings and see how they do it.

I don't even shoot prime focus (other than the moon) through my Alt-Az Goto scope (Celestron Nexstar 5) because of field rotation during tracking, especially when it's near the zenith. At best it's only good for visual observation. My advice is don't waste your time... End of the day you'll probably still spend money on an equatorial mount if you're serious about it..;p

 

[psychobiologist]

If you're shooting prime focus through a scope or a long telephoto, then you can forget about this kind of setup. Without proper polar alignment using an equatorial mount with motors for tracking, it is near impossible to get good image. Even when the polar alignment is slightly off, you're not going to get sharp images beyond a few seconds of exposure. Even experienced astronomers/astrophotographers can take up to an hour to do a proper polar alignment before they start shooting or they will use an off-axis guiding attachment to manually guide the scope during the exposure.

I suggest you pay a visit to AstroScientific Centre and talk to Albert Lim and ask him for some advice or talk to some people from SingAstro or TASOS, maybe join them for their outings and see how they do it.

I don't even shoot prime focus (other than the moon) through my Alt-Az Goto scope (Celestron Nexstar 5) because of field rotation during tracking, especially when it's near the zenith. At best it's only good for visual observation. My advice is don't waste your time... End of the day you'll probably still spend money on an equatorial mount if you're serious about it..;p

yes boss :embrass: