Getting back to you on the eclipse - I will be using a Canon 500 mm f/4 lens on a 32 mpx crop sensor’ed camera. I am considering putting a 1.4X teleconverter on the lens, which would make it 700 mm but only f/5.6. With a little more practice, I think this tracking mount will allow me to go with the longer, but slower lens option.
The main reason that I want to do this is that the last 2 eclipses I’ve photographed, I really had to crank up the ISO (think of it as amplifying the light that the sensor captures) which results in a lot of image noise. In order to crush the noise and clean up the image, some detail is lost. The tracking allows me to take a longer time exposure without the issue of motion blur (you may or may not be surprised at how visible such movement is, even for only a second, with higher magnification lenses).
So it’s not a telescope, but a big telephoto lens. The diameter of the entrance optic is about 125 mm, which would make it around a 5 inch diameter.
Of course, it is designed for photography, so no live view will be available other than what the camera picks up.
This is my inner geek screaming to get out. Q would undoubtedly approve.
Meyer; I am not at all surprised at the amount of movement at high resolution when your camera is tracking! And if you get changes in the temperature at different levels of the atmosphere that results in additional distortion! (And I hope it is not cloudy that night! Here it looks like rain Friday through Sunday!)
In any case, you are way ahead of me on this! I have a pair of binoculars that shake when I use them, an unfinished unsilvered 4” reflector lens , and a refractor telescope that my father picked up at a garage sale that is missing the eyepiece lens! If I were out in the country away from citylights I might do a little more to get them up and working!
I hope that you get good weather and you are able to take some pictures to share with the thread!
Then we have taurids coming!
(From Spaceweather.com)
Space Weather News for Oct. 31, 2022
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com
“THE TAURID SWARM IS COMING: A swarm of meteoroids is approaching Earth, and it could double the number of fireballs we usually see at this time of year. Researchers call it the “Taurid Swarm.” It comes from the breakup of a giant comet 10 to 20 thousand years ago. Next week’s lunar eclipse might be a good time to watch for these meteoroids hitting Earth and the Moon. Full story @ Spaceweather.com”
If there is a upcoming sky event that relates to Q, it would probably be the Lunar Eclipse on November 8.