The barn door tracker was my fist attempt at tracked exposure.
These photos were done on an old rickety wooden telescope tripod that I motorized in a very weird way.
I looked and looked for ways to make a variable speed drive for the tripod using a stepper motor with a variable speed control. Too many of the DIY tracker motors .... most of them actually........were computerized and I didn't want that.......... I just wanted a slow turning motor with extremely consistant speeds that I could control..... somewhere in the 1 to 4 RPM range.
I stopped chasing down the stepper motor idea after I got these photos.

Using a 300mm camera lens and exposures of 15 to 20 minutes or so, I don't need the accuracy that you guys do with your powerful telescopes. I don't have but a few photos with this Flintstone contraption.......... it's extremely difficult to use because the speed of the motor needs to be adjusted every 10 to 30 seconds.

I love tinkering, but can't justify the expense of a good motorized tripod.
Motorizing this contraption was done simply to get a decent photo of Hale Bopp........... If it was super accurate and easier to use and set up, I'd be more inclined to use it.
Some day I'll take a picture of it to give you guys a real good laugh. Not having a digital camera, I need to use my film camera and have a CD made along with the prints........ slow and a bit spendy, but it's all I have right now.

Thanks for the nice comments guys............ I wish I could show better photos of Hale Bopp by having my slide images converted onto a CD.
Nobody locally does any decent slide to CD conversions.

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fogged in
From the sunny and warm, Oregon coast.