Manually Operated Version

Click for larger image.	Click here for the Motorized Version	Click for larger image.
Click for larger image.

				BARN DOOR INFORMATION
				Introduction
				Drive Mechanism
				Drive Electronics
				Latitude Wedge
				Camera Platform
				Component Sources
				Manually Operated Version
				Helpful Links
				ASTROPHOTOS
				Comet Hale-Bopp Photos
				Constellation Portraits

These are photos of my earlier barn door mount used mainly for photos of Comet Hale-Bopp. Here are two nice photos made with this mount.

For convenience and stability, I designed the mount to sit on the trunk of my car. A tripod made of 2 x 4 lumber supported the mount. To make polar alignment as easy as possible, I calculated the lengths of the tripod legs so that the camera platform was tilted at an angle of a little less than 43°, which was the latitude of my (then) home in New Hampshire. Adjustable feet allowed for fine tuning when aligning the mount with Polaris. I adjusted the tripod until I could see Polaris through a Burger King soda straw glued to the mount, parallel to the hinges. This has proved accurate enough for exposures in the 1 to 4 minute range. Tracking was accomplished by continuously turning a long ¼-inch screw at a rate of one revolution per minute while the exposure was in progress.