Last week I spent some time up at my friend's cabin outside of Yellowstone National Park. This area is superbly dark with no light pollution to speak of. The darkness coupled with an elevation of 7000 feet makes for a prime location for astrophotography.
On this occassion I was experimenting with a new imaging setup. My usual rig consists of over 100 lbs worth of telescopes, mounting equipment, and cameras, but this is WAY to much hassel to check for a flight at the airport. Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to shoot under Wyoming's dark skies I decided to take a gamble on a more modest concept.
Orion's EQ-1 equatorial mount can easily hold a DSLR plus a lens and can also be outfitted with a small RA drive. Both items cost a total of $107 and are small and light enough to fit inside checked baggage. The EQ-1 can attach to any tripod with a 3/8" bolt which adds huge appeal since my tripod comes along on these trips anyway.
My 350D modified with Baader's IR/URV internal filter mounted to the EQ-1, supported by my Manfrotto 055XDB:
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The Milky Way and southern horizon: This is a single 240-second exposure at ISO 1600, shot with a Tokina 12-24 at F4. The brightest 'star' is Jupiter.
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The Cygnus region: This is a single 120-second exposure at ISO 1600, shot with a Tamron 28-75 at F4.
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Overall I'm fairly pleased with how the EQ-1 performed. At these short focal lengths my tracking error stayed smaller than a pixel as long I didn't exceed 3-4 minutes of exposure. I need a better method to polar-align the EQ-1, but that'll be a project for my next trip to the dark corners of the world.
