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That $200 solar tracking mount barely moved an inch, what a waste

Picked up this budget solar tracker mount back in March because I wanted to shoot the eclipse sequence without babysitting my rig. Paid $200 plus shipping, and on test day it just... sat there. Motor hummed, gears turned, but the platform drifted maybe 5 degrees total over six hours. I could've done that by nudging the tripod myself. Customer support said to update firmware, which did nothing. Ended up using my old manual alt-az head and got the shots anyway. Anyone else get burned by cheap trackers, or is there a decent one that actually works around the $300 range?

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parker_webb18d ago

Yeah I saw a review somewhere that said those cheap trackers are basically just using the same motor you'd find in a desk fan, which honestly makes sense given how weak mine was. I got lucky and my buddy let me borrow his SkyWatcher for a weekend and it tracked like a champ, but that thing costs almost double what you paid so it's not exactly a fair fight. Honestly for $300 you're probably better off just stacking shorter exposures and doing a bit of manual nudging, that's what I ended up doing for the eclipse and it worked fine.