RE: [APML] need advice on camera mount

["fl.lusen" <fl.lusen@verizon.net>]

Wei-Hao,

A perplexing situation.  I too have agonized over mounting camera and lens
on my system.  I have drawn up all sorts of mounts that would be adjustable
in altitude and azimuth.  No matter how massive or solid they were I always
worried about introducing points of flexure.  It finally hit me one day that
since it is wide field, my longest lens in a Nikon 180ED, there was only a
need to rotate the camera for framing.  Once I took the alt/az equation out
of the picture things got a lot simpler.  If you are still considering an
alt/az setup, have you looked at the DiscMount? http://www.discmounts.com/
It is quite expensive but I saw them at TSP last year and they are one solid
piece of equipment.  If it can hold a 130mm refractor, it can certainly hold
a camera and lens.  You might want to look at the review
http://www.cloudynights.com/mounts2/discmount.htm

Hope this helps some.

Fred Lusen

-----Original Message-----
From: astro-photo-bounces@seds.org [mailto:astro-photo-bounces@seds.org]On
Behalf Of Wei-Hao Wang
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 6:01 PM
To: APML
Subject: Re: [APML] need advice on camera mount

Hi,

Thanks for all the advises.

I had been thinking about alt/az mounts.  Most of them are perhaps not
esigned for long exposures.  They may be able to load heavy things, but
may not be rigid enough to maintain the pointing accurately during exposures
longer than an hour or so.  I have similar doubts on ball heads.  Jerry, do
you think the Arca-Swisss ball heads capable of doing this?  I don't have
experience on such heavy duty ball heads.  I only know about small ones.

The closest to the alt/az mounts is this:
http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=&pid=1587&m=35
(I can get this with about $350.0 from Japan.  It's not as expansive as it
sounds.)  This treats the camera as a guidescope.  It should be strong
enough, I guess.

Another candidate is Gitzo Pan/Tilt Head:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&s
ku=170918&is=REG
But again, I'm not sure if it is strong enough for long exposures.

Any thoughts?

Wei-Hao

--
________________________________________________________________
Wei-Hao Wang  :)

Institute for Astronomy at University of Hawaii

Address:
2680 Woodlawn Drive         Personal Website:
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