TheSkySearchers

I don't know if anyone else has come across this, I seen this awhile back before it was on github via Google article , it's open source with a few venders doing kits, looks like a little fun project, might be able to do the large ring out of wood and 3d print the rest of the parts if limited on print size.

https://github.com/OpenAstroTech/OpenAstroTracker

That's an interesting one Rob.

I put a Canon lens on my now redundant OSC camera and mounted on a tripod for the Perseids. Much longer exposures could be used if the combo was sat on one of these!

Are you going to make one?

Graeme

Graeme1858 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 8:10 am That's an interesting one Rob.

I put a Canon lens on my now redundant OSC camera and mounted on a tripod for the Perseids. Much longer exposures could be used if the combo was sat on one of these!

Are you going to make one?

Graeme

maybe after i finish a few other projects first .

To my simple mind, this looks exceedingly complex but I've seen your past work Rob and I'm sure this is something you can masterfully construct.

Keep us posted.

Here we go, I talked about this one months ago, I'm doing it, I have all my parts ordered, it isn't too expensive , well rather cheap actually less then $200,the project uses a 3d printer motherboard and off the shelf stepper motors along with basic gears and belts found in printers aswell .

Alot of printing time about 9 hr per part and there's about 30 of them, I'm printing the parts with abs and using 7 layer wall thickness so there should be alot of strength with the prints.


This is one of the roller bearing housing that holds the RA ring set to my latitude

This is going to be a fun project to watch!!

Ahh yes many hours later and much more to go, turns out there's another tracking mount you can print, it's listed on the opentracker page, it's called the open astro mount, it's basicly a standard eq tracker you put on a pier with a 5+ kg capacity with 0.5rms

Here's an updated, almost done, just need some jst connectors, compile the firmware and add a camera mount

Done the diy guide scope, very cheap and easy to build, the Imx290 cmos chip cost about $28aud and the lense is about $40 aud, I think I might just build another one so I can swap them out and get my high speed planetary cameras back from my other imaging rigs..