#smooth area

[cherryfizzle]

Kenshin looks... oddly smooth

[astrodiy]

Step One: Preliminary Study

The first question was: Equatorial or Azimutal ? The answer is easy. Azimutal needs 2 motorized axes so make things harder to build. Then that kind of mount is not suitable to astrophotography because of the blur caused by field rotation of the optics.

The second question was: An equatorial mount ok but ... What for ?

I'm fond of deep sky astrophotography, so I want a device which is able to follow the deep sky objects (not especially planets nor comets). The thing is that I want something able to follow objects for a long period without touching anything.

So I need :

Stability

Accurate tracking

Long time traveling

Heavy weight carrying capability

I've seen lots of home made equatorial mount but none of them where really fitting my needs :

Some of them are nice and accurate like the Serge Bertorello one :

1. The Smooth Area mount 

The problem with that kind of mount are :

It's HUGE

The smooth area (in green) allow few hours of tracking

It uses a threaded rod which wear out quickly and transmit vibrations.

I've a small car, I'm lazy (not want to repair it every month), so I've decided it wasn't for me.

2. The Equatorial Table (ot platform)

Lighter than the smooth area mount, the Equatorial table seduced me for a while. But then problems came.

It's nice when you have a dobson but I don't. You have to place on top another pointing system which add more stuff to do. And finally, you have a limitation of the angle of polar axis regarding the spot you observe. 

You can find here some web sites if that system interests you :

Nice one - in french but with nice illustrations -

Another nice one - with plans an in english -

3. The Cam Board

Lighter and lighter, the cam board is a famous and easy system for astrophotography.

Ok it seems pretty cheap and to be frank ... it is.

The carrying capability is weak, it's still using a threaded rod and to finish with this system, it's hard to make it accurate.

Conclusion : Let design a brand new one with the combination of all pros and trying avoiding cons.