Astrophotography Mounts

The mount is the most important part of any astrophotography setup. Long-exposure images of galaxies and nebulae require a mount that tracks the sky precisely as the Earth rotates; even small tracking errors turn stars into streaks. Explore Scientific astrophotography mounts, including the iEXOS-100 equatorial tracker and PMC-Eight GoTo equatorial mounts, are designed to deliver the accurate, smooth tracking imagers need.

Equatorial mounts align one axis with the celestial pole, allowing them to follow celestial objects with a single motor and eliminating the field rotation that affects alt-azimuth mounts. PMC-Eight control adds GoTo pointing, WiFi and Bluetooth app control, ASCOM compatibility and autoguiding support for integration with popular imaging software. The compact iEXOS-100 is especially popular for small refractors and camera-and-lens astrophotography thanks to its portability.

For best results, keep your total imaging payload comfortably below the mount's rated capacity, achieve accurate polar alignment with a polar finder, and balance your telescope carefully with counterweights. Pair your mount with an ED APO refractor and field flattener for a complete, high-performance astrophotography system that can capture stunning images of the night sky.