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- Small but sturdy equatorial mount that's perfect for traveling or campouts
- Features an all-metal EQ-1 equatorial head perched on a tripod with three thread-on legs
- Makes a terrific tracking platform for wide-field astrophotography with a 35mm camera
- Includes counterweight, dual slow-motion cables, latitude adjustment, and 1/4"-20 adapter
- Height approximately 14", weight 10 lbs., 5 oz.
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List
Price: $54.95 |
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New, lowest price : $54.95 |
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| Product Description |
| Here' s a nifty little equatorial mount for small telescopes that makes a perfect stargazing companion for campouts and trips. It' s our all-metal EQ-1 equatorial head perched on three thread-on legs, complete with counterweight, dual slow-motion cables, latitude adjustment, and 14"-20 adapter. Set it on a park bench or large rock, or even on your car' s hood for an impromptu scan of the heavens. Also makes a terrific tracking platform for wide-field astrophotography with a 35mm camera! Height ~14", weighs 10 lbs., 5 oz. |
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| Optics Reviews Writed by Customer
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Nice Mount for a Great Price
2007-06-06
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I purchased this mount for photographic uses and not telescope or astro uses. That being said, it is a very nice mount for the money. It is small, of durable construction, and rapidly assembled. It does take a 1/4-20 thread in its base so it can be attached to tripods with that type screw (a common photo tripod size).
Pros-
Cheap, well built, simple to use (has understandable instructions for alignment), accepts the EQ-1M sidereal motor
Cons-
HEAVY. Even though it says "table-top", you're not going to be schlepping this with you on hikes unless you can deal with an extra 12 lbs in your pack.
The 1/4-20 thread is part of a long (about 3") pin that sits in the provided table-top tripod, so if you use it with a standard 1/4-20 photo tripod, it will seem to float about 3" above the mating surface on your tripod. I use washers from the local hardware store to support the weight (otherwise, the threaded screw is the only thing supporting this tripod head's 12 lbs weight). I would not recommend using the head on a tripod without some sort of support bushing (like washers, or some other creative solution, it's something easily remedied at home by anyone).
Even with these two cons, I would still highly recommend this tripod mount for anyone, particularly photographers looking for a ridiculously cheap GEM head for QTVR or other uses. |
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An Inexpensive Entry into Astrophotography
2006-05-10
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The MIN-EQ is an inexpensive "tabletop" German Equatorial Mount which allows you, wih the addition of the Orion EQ-1M Electronic Drive System, to take long exposure photographs of the stars without showing "trailing" (an effect of the Earth's rotation which becomes apparent during long photographic exposures causing stars to appear, not as pinpoints of light, but as circular lines). The mount is particularly well suited for beginning wide-field astrophotography. For more information on astrophotography, please see Astrophotography for the Amateur by Michael A. Covington.
The MIN-EQ is constructed of all metal (except for the knobs) and is quite sturdy. The base has three stuby screw-in metal legs although the unit can be mounted to any sturdy photographic tripod/head that uses a 3/8 screw (e.g., Bogen). While quite small, the unit is also fairly heavy, especially with the included counter weight, but is still fairly portable. It also includes a 1/4-20 adapter so you can directly mount your camera to the MIN-EQ.
The major disadvatage of the MIN-EQ is the difficultly of polar aligning the mount (i.e., pointing the mount in the proper direction so that it can properly cancel out the effect of the Earth's rotation). By following the directions and setting the correct latitude adjustment and pointing the mount in the direction of Polaris, you can achieve maybe 5 minute long wide angle (28mm camera lens) exposures before the stars begin trailing. I ended up mounting a finder scope to the MIN-EQ unit in order to improve polar alignment and was able to achieve a maximum of 15 minute long wide-angle exposures. If you have a telescope, you should be able to do as well or better by "drift aligning" the mount.
Another disadvantage to the unit is that the counter weight can restrict the movement of the mount by bumping into the motor housing. This is easily worked around by using a ballhead camera mount rather than directly mounting a camera to the MIN-EQ itself.
All in all, I would indeed recommend the MIN-EQ for anyone interested in trying out astrophotography on the cheap but with the caveat that it will take great amounts of patience to setup and use. I would highly recommend reading some of the good references on amateur astrophotography such as Covington's, however, BEFORE making any purchases. |
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