prime focus astrophotography

[orly_andico]

has anyone tried doing this with a very cheap mount?

e.g. a barn door or similar? I made several barn doors with stepper motor drives but the floppy-drive steppers lack torque.

So I got this department store scope with an EQ-1 equivalent mount (Barska 90060). I put aside the 60mm tube with the hope of using the mount for short-FL photography. Digi-Key Singapore sells a 12-volt, 1 RPM geared motor for about $75 SGD. It's cheaper than ordering the motor from Orion or similar.

My ambitions are not high, my plan is to just use a 200mm camera lens (300mm equivalent on DSLR) stopped down to f/8 for large DSO's (if I can find them...) this should be good enough for things like Flame, Veil, M42.. I've seen pictures of the Horsehead done with a 135mm lens on film!

Any comments on this idea?