| dc.description.abstract | Currently, astrophotography remains practiced by large telescopes and also by astrophotographers
that have countless challenges. The main one relies on the fact that celestial
bodies, in general, demand long exposure times. Unfortunately, despite the camera being
on a tripod, the rotational movement of the Earth doesn’t allow the stars to be exposed to
the sensor for a long time, resulting in blurry images. For this reason, it is necessary to
use a tool that moves the camera in the apparent rotation direction of the sky, compensating
for this movement and obtaining a high-quality photographic record. For this, there are
numerous commercial tools for tracking the sky. However, all of them are commercialized
in the Northern hemisphere and with an exorbitant cost for the average Brazilian. So, in
order to simplify and reduce the cost associated with astrophotography, making it accessible,
the objective of this work was to develop an equatorial platform for astrophotography
that is portable; robust; precise; easy to set up and use; of weight and volume compatible
with photographic tripods; and at a lower cost than commercial solutions. The platform’s
differential is a mobile application that makes it easy to use these tools for the configuration
of the platform to obtain photographic records. The final system has been passed into
vibration tests to ensure that the assembly would be suitable for use. Also, the system got
tested with long exposure photography. | |
