Shoestring Astronomy Support

Hi
I am a relative newbie to astronomy so bare with me. I've recently purchased a EQ5 mount and evostar 120 refractor and would like to control the mount for astro photography, i could purchase synscan goto £295. But is there another way using dual drive motors and starry night pro i think i can modify the dual axis controller to autoguide but then i would have to purchase a guide scope. will starry night pro or any other program enable me to use my pc in effect as a synscan controler to drive the dual axis motors on the mount!

cheers Barry

By only adding a guide port, you will only get relatively slow movement of the scope, not the fast slewing motion to zip around the sky like you might be looking for.

I believe there is a Synscan compatible upgrade for the mount that includes motors, encoders and the driver board, but not the handcontroller. With this upgrade, you could then use the EQMOD software found at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/EQMOD/

The EQMOD website also has information on the Synscan upgrade, and plenty of forum members that have already been through the process. They should be able to help you out.