Telescope Mounts Explained

Effortlessly Align and Control Your Panther Mount with SkySafari on Your Mobile Device

October 9, 2024

Make it even easier to align and operate your Panther Mount by using the SkySafari App. With the app, you can align the mount, control its movements, and access any object in the extensive catalog. This solution seamlessly integrates with the mount’s handpad, allowing you to switch between using the app and the handpad as…
Have your telescope track the Space Station and thousands of other satellites

October 2, 2024

Many of you have likely seen the International Space Station (ISS) shining brightly as it passes through the evening sky. It’s amazing to think that bright dot is a fully equipped station with astronauts onboard. But wouldn’t it be even better to see it up close? Manually tracking the fast-moving ISS with a telescope is…
Using a Camera rotator to take perfect Astrophotos with no polar alignment needed

November 6, 2023

Camera rotators are today primarily used to frame the target when taking Astrophotos. With the newest high-resolution camera rotators, it is now possible to take perfectly tracked Astrophotos with an Alt-Az type telescope mount. Why bother doing that? Well, it means faster setup with no polar alignment and undisturbed imaging from east to west, with…
Remote alignment of your Alt-Az mount for EAA and Astrophotography – No polar alignment hassle

May 22, 2023

An Alt-Az mount like the Panther Mount can be aligned completely from indoors. No need to be outside to level or Polar align the mount. And it is then ready for either EAA or long exposure Astrophotography In this post I will explain how you easily can make a complete observation run remotely from a…
Messier Marathon 2023 – Visual and EAA

March 18, 2023

“If you are able to observe all 110 objects during one single night – from dusk to dawn – you have completed a Messier Marathon.” This is the main definition of a Messier Marathon. There can be different versions of a Messier Marathon: Charles Messier 1730-1817 The old style completely analogue Messier Marathon: Using just…
Enjoy flexibility and the dark sky with a mobile observatory

February 27, 2023

“The struggle of setting up all the telescope equipment often stops me from getting out to observe“ I am sure most of you can recognize this situation: The sky is wonderfully clear, and the coming night will be great for observations. But do I have the energy to pack all the gear, set it up,…
Alt-Az mount for EAA – a perfect match

January 25, 2023

EAA (Electronic Assisted Astronomy) is Astrophotography kept simple – Alt-Az mounts are tracking mounts kept simple – A perfect match I define EAA as taking short exposure astrophotos and displaying them live. Typically the setup is simple with a One Shot Colour Camera on a telescope carried by a tracking mount. Stacking on the…
Bino Viewing – Two eyes sees better than one

June 17, 2022

Sometimes it seems like everybody has thrown out their eyepieces and only images the sky. Even though Astrophotography is hot there are many astronomers who wants to SEE the objects live with their own eyes. Some even acquire sets of eyepieces to be able to enjoy the wonders of the sky with both eyes… …
Automated astrophotography with Alt-Az telescope mounts (using NINA and TTS-160 Panther Mount)

February 16, 2022

Keep warm indoor, sleep all night – the automated system will collect light all night long. Automating your astro-imaging is getting easier and easier all the time. New hardware and software solutions becomes available for the dedicated amateur astronomer. In this post I will tell how I have used the software NINA – Nighttime Imaging…
ASIAIR Pro on Alt-Az mounts PART 3: Using PLAN MODE for automation

November 2, 2021

Alt-Az mount Astrophotography – easier than ever It’s getting easier and easier to use Alt-Az mounts for Astrophotography (AP). You don’t have to bother with levelling and polar alignment, so you can setup very fast and easily. With the many new computer devices it is also possible to control the system remotely. Most Alt-Az mounts…
ASIAIR Pro on Alt-Az mounts PART 2: How to take the first images

September 1, 2021

Alt-Az mount Astrophotography – easier than ever It’s getting easier and easier to use Alt-Az mounts for Astrophotography (AP). You don’t have to bother with levelling and polar alignment, so you can setup very fast and easy. With the many new computer devices it is also possible to control the system remotely. Most Alt-Az mounts…
ASIAIR Pro on Alt-Az mount PART 1 – how to set up the system

August 18, 2021

Alt-Az mount Astrophotography – easier than ever It’s getting easier and easier to use Alt-Az mounts for Astrophotography (AP). You don’t have to bother with levelling and polar alignment, so you can setup very fast and easy. With the many new computer devices it is also possible to control the system remotely. Most Alt-Az mounts…
Alt-Az astrophotography from Arizona.

February 1, 2021

In the autumn of 2020 I noticed quite a few great astrophotos on Instagram from @azastroguy. All the images were taken with a Panther telescope mount in Alt-Az mode. The guy behind these great images is Mark Johnston of Scottsdale, Arizona. I asked Mark if he could tell a little about his images. Can an…
Planet observations using an Alt-Az mount – advantages and considerations

September 7, 2020

When observing and imaging the moon, the sun and the planets you need a mount that can track the object fairly precise. Generally speaking you can use either an Alt-Az mount or an polar aligned mount (GEM or fork). Here I will look at how an Alt-Az mount can be used and how it compares…
Comet NEOWISE is here – how to set up your mount and telescope for twilight observations

July 10, 2020

Comet Neowise 08. Juli 2020. TEC 140 f/7 TTS-160 Panther Mount. 3 sec exposure with Canon 1100Da. NLC covers the sky around the comet.Comet NEOWISE is making a great show right now. It passed closest to the sun on July 3rd and is now slowly moving away from the sun. This means we have to…
Galaxy hunting with Eye and Camera

May 11, 2020

The winter sky with the many gas nebulas has disappeared in the western twilight. In an earlier post – Fast Deep Sky Imaging – I described how these large objects could be imaged with fast optical systems with limited focal length and large field of view. In springtime our view points away from the milky…
Guiding the Panther Alt-Az mount with PHD2

March 5, 2020

PHD2 is a fantastic tool for guiding our telescope mounts. Most of the basic features and settings were created with a German Equatorial Mount in mind. Using it with an Alt-AZ mount is just as precise, as long as you have the right settings. In this post I will explain how to setup PHD2 when…
Fast Deep Sky Imaging – fast optics, fast mount

February 16, 2020

To many clouds – to little clear sky – what can you do In Denmark we have few clear nights and from May to August we have light summer nights. So the nights where I can image the sky – as I love to do – are few. What to do about it? Some people…
THE CELESTIAL POLAR REGION TEST – learn how to test your telescope and mount using the polar region.

December 10, 2019

In this post I will introduce a technique to test your telescope/camera system independant of the telescope mount and at the same time get information about your mount – if you have any questions or comments send me an email. What you can learn from this post The sky area around the celestial pole…
Simple day time alignment of your Alt-Az mount using a terrestrial object

November 5, 2019

At times it could be great to setup the telescope mount in daytime. Generally, this is not possible when you can’t see any stars. In this post I will describe a method to align the mount precisely in daytime. Sometimes on a nice sunny day you would like to observe the sun or the brighter…
VIDEO: Talk about THE MODERN ALT-AZ MOUNT held by Niels Haagh at The Practical Astronomy Show 2019

June 17, 2019

This is a video recording of a talk about the Modern Alt-Az mount held at The Practical Astronomy Show in March 2019. Actually the recording was made a few weeks later when I repeated the talk at The Astronomical Society of Copenhagen. Unfortunately the video quality is not perfect but I hope it can be…
Alt-Az mounts for long exposure astrophotography – Camera rotators

April 22, 2019

In this post we will look at the most advanced type of Alt-Az astrophotography using camera rotators – if you have any questions or comments, write them at the bottom of the page or send me an email. In the earlier post “Astrophotography with Alt-Az telescope mounts”, the possibilities for taking astrophotos with Alt-Az mounts…
Alt-Az mounts for long exposure astrophotography – Telescope rotators

February 21, 2019

The trip into Alt-Az astrophotography continues – if you have any questions or comments, write them at the bottom of the page or send me an email. In the earlier post “Astrophotography with Alt-Az telescope mounts”, the possibilities for taking astrophotos with Alt-Az mounts were introduced. There are two basic approaches. 1. Take multiple short…
Short exposure Alt-Az Astrophotography – learn how to get great results

December 12, 2018

You can take great astrophotos using your Alt-Az mount – learn how here If you own an Alt-Az mount, you most likely think “It cannot be used for deep sky astrophotography”. But that is not correct. It is possible to take wonderful deep sky images with an Alt-Az mount if you know how to do…
Astrophotography with Alt-Az telescope mounts

November 20, 2018

You may have learned that for taking good astrophotos, you need a polar aligned mount preferably a german equatorial mount. But with new high quality Alt-Az mounts, this is no longer true. New technologies introduced in Alt-Az mounts mean they can deliver precise equatorial tracking while maintaining the basic advantages of the Alt-Az mount (read…
The modern Alt-Az telescope mount – Easy, fast and precise

October 27, 2018

The Alt-Az mount is gaining fame again after many years in the shadow of the polar aligned parallactic mount. The ever increasing possibilities within computer control has made it possible to design Alt-Az mounts capable of delivering precise equatorial tracking. Having the simple mechanical principles of the Alt-Az mount, these new mounts offer easier transport…
The comeback of the Alt-Az telescope mount

October 22, 2018

This is the first article in a small series that will focus on the use and possibilities of Altitude-Azimuth (Alt-Az) telescope mounts. First the basic overview will be created and in the coming articles more details on the actual use and possibilities of the modern Alt-Az mount will be covered. The historic view The very…
Telescope Eyepiece Basics

October 8, 2013

Below is the slides from a presentation I have held several times at different Starparties. The presentation gives a basic introduction to eyepieces and how to select the right ones for your telescope.