[OzEclipse (Joe Cali)]

Hi Sara,

A Star Adventurer can’t track even a short lightweight refractor, unless you want one of the little 50mm f4 models. If that's the case and if you’re going to be travelling with it, perhaps something that’s multipurpose like a good fast 135mm or 200mm lens. The physical weight, dimensions of a short telephoto are better suited to a Star Adventurer than say a 70mm-80mm class refractor.

You can capture Andromeda and the Pinwheel galaxies successfully with lenses of 135mm and up.

In the attachments:-

1. Milky Way Core captured with a 135mm f2. I wanted to test the unguided tracking ability of the Star Adventurer lens so I stopped the 135mm down to f5.6 to extend the exposure time to 4 mins.

2. Andromeda captured with a 300mm lens but on an equatorial mounting.

3. I have also captured Andromeda with a 135mm. The Samyang 135mm f2 ED vignettes at f2 but this can be controlled with flats or stopping down to f2.8 gets rid of the worst of the vignetting. You could also consider a good quality 135mm f2.8 rather than f2 to save some weight.

The Andromeda shots were taken from southern NSW with Andromeda low on the horizon. You should be able to do considerably better from the northern hemisphere.

Joe