Rant: That $300 tracking mount I got for night sky shots was a total dud

I stood outside for 2 hours in 30 degree weather near Lake Tahoe trying to get a clear shot of Orion and the stupid mount kept drifting off target after 30 seconds, has anyone else had luck with those budget equatorial mounts from Amazon?

2 comments

2 Comments

sullivan.john15h ago

30 degrees? Dude I would have packed it in after ten minutes and gone to find a diner. That whole mount situation sounds like a nightmare. I learned the hard way with a cheap star tracker too, it's basically a toy that will just break your heart. Hope you at least got a nice view of the lake before the stars started moving around on you.

lily_sullivan824h ago

The lake view at sunset was actually incredible @sullivan.john, I'll give you that. But I gotta disagree on the tracker thing. My cheap one worked fine for two years before it started slipping. Just gotta reset it every 20 minutes and keep your expectations low. 30 degrees is rough though. My fingers were numb by the time I got the alignment right. Still got a few decent shots of Orion before everything went sideways.