At 10:44 28.7.2002 +0100, Cotty wrote: >Comet Ikeya-Zhang >Antti-Pekka Virjonen >Shots like this I assumed were always made with a camera bolted onto the >end of a mountain-top telescope big enough to spot a Klingon's verrucas >while he was on holiday enslaving a planet on the far side of the Delta >Quadrant. The technical expertise that made this stunning shot humbles >me, and I take my hat off (for there are many) to Antti-Pekka for >achieving it. Awesome.
Thanks for you kind comments :-) I'm back from the vacation (I'm still re-learning the keyboard ;-). We were sailing in the Turku Archipelago area quite a lot... Regarding the technical things of the mount: I made the tracking mount myself a couple of years ago. It uses a heavy duty Manfrotto tripod (triauto) and a 7" wormdrive on a 2" axle on ball bearings. There is a Manfrotto heavy 3D head on the mount to take the camera(s). The tracking is accurate enough to take 10-20 min photos using the 300/2.8 lens without the stars starting to drift in the picture. The stepper motor of the drive is driven by an embedded microcontroller system (which I have designed/built/programmed as well). Maybe I need to scan a photo of the system for everyone to see. Antti-Pekka --- * Antti-Pekka Virjonen * Fiskarsinkatu 7 D * GSM: +358 500 789 753 * * Computec Oy Turku * FIN-20750 Turku Finland * Fax: +358 10 264 0777 * - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
