I like your videos!

Dan,

I forgot to mention that Telescope Warehouse sells a Meade DS setup with the bracket for just under $200 last I checked.  With a DSLR you would need a beefier bracket than what I rigged up for my little Ricoh, so the Telescope Warehouse rig might be the way to go. I snagged my Meade DS off eBay, then sold off the OTA and eyepieces that came with it.

Dan,

I am doing the panning with a Meade DS series telescope tripod and head, I made a bracket from an "L" brace I picked up at the hardware store, drilled a hole and used the bolt from a cheapie photo tripod. If you go to MiLapse (on my subscription list) you will see a video he posted on the setup, I think the video is titled "Two Axis Panning Head". The software I am using to compile the images into video is Sony Vegas Studio. I think some folks are also using Adobe After Effects. I use Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 to batch re-size the frames to 1280 x 720 before compiling the video. The other thing to keep in mind is power - I got an AC adapter for the Ricoh, and made one for the Meade DS so I can run the whole setup off a 12v jump-start battery. I just upgraded my 8GB SDHC card in the camera to a 16GB card so I should be able to run a longer sequence - I am going to try for a whole day.

Very interesting time lapse work, Richard. I'm in the process of testing out the intervalometer feature of my older model Nikon D200 to see what I can achieve with it. I like the way you pan during your time lapse sequences. I've heard of people mounting an equatorial telescope mount sideways to achive a smooth pan. Is this how you did it? Also, what program did you use to create the movie from the individual frames. Thanks. Dan Bush