Telescope Mount Guide
A telescope mount is what carries your telescope and allows you to aim it at objects in the night sky. Telescope mounts come in many shapes and sizes: they can be as simple as a stationary tripod or as complex as a motorized equatorial mount that keeps your telescope tracking celestial objects.
The two most common types of telescope mounts are alt-azimuth and equatorial. Alt-azimuth mounts are great for visual observing, while equatorial mounts are designed for most types of astrophotography, especially deep sky.
For imaging, the telescope mount is actually the most important component of any astrophotography rig. The telescope and camera are important, but without a solid mount to carry it, you cannot accurately track the night sky. Accurate tracking allows you to get longer exposures without streaking stars, which is critical for deep sky imaging.
Here at Agena Astro, we carry a wide variety of telescope mounts for amateur astronomers and astrophotographers! You can read a quick overview of each mount type below, or click on any of those pages to learn more in depth about a particular type.
Equatorial Telescope Mounts
Altazimuth Telescope Mounts
Hybrid Telescope Mounts
Star Tracker Mounts
Star trackers are essentially miniaturized Equatorial Mounts. These small mounts are designed to carry a smaller payload like a small telescope or lens and camera, which makes them perfect for travel and beginners getting into astrophotography. Star trackers are excellent for photographing the Milky Way or wide field objects. Because of their smaller size, they’re also a lot more affordable, though most of them cannot adequately carry telescopes heavier than a few pounds.