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Old 06-07-2015, 12:48 PM
Russman (Russ)
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Location: Hurstbridge, Victoria, Australia.
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Advice required, Star Tracker

Hi all, I am looking at purchasing a star tracker for long exposure astrophotography with my 6D (various lenses) and stumbled across this - Skywatcher AZ AllView SynScan GoTo mount + stainless steel tripod http://myastroshop.com.au/products/d...d=MAS-030K4Can and I thought it would be great as I am also into timelapse.

anyone please offer me some advice on this? Would it have very good tracking accuracy for long exposures?

Thanks guys.
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Old 07-07-2015, 06:22 PM
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OzEclipse (Joe Cali)
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Wrong product. You need an equatorial tracker.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Russman View Post
Hi all, I am looking at purchasing a star tracker for long exposure astrophotography with my 6D (various lenses) and stumbled across this - Skywatcher AZ AllView SynScan GoTo mount + stainless steel tripod http://myastroshop.com.au/products/d...d=MAS-030K4Can and I thought it would be great as I am also into timelapse.

anyone please offer me some advice on this? Would it have very good tracking accuracy for long exposures?

Thanks guys.
Hi Russman,

This product will track for long periods but will not track the way you want for long exposure starfield photos. It will track the object it is pointing at but because it moves in altitude and azimuth it will make all the other stars rotate in circles around whatever star or object the mount is tracking. That object will also rotate.

To do longer exposure astrophotography, you need an equatorial mounting or a small equatorial tracking device. An equatorial mount has one axis aligned parallel to the Earth's axis and can follow the stars by driving just the one axis.

The choice mount vs tracker, to some extent, depends upon the equipment weight and focal length. If you want to use longer telephotos or heavy gear for longer exposures, you'll need a mount with guiding capabilities. For shorter exposures with lighter wide angle lenses, you can use the more portable small equatorial tracking devices.

Equatorial mounts are generally bigger, heavier and can carry a bigger payload but are also much harder to transport and set up. They generally only track at the rotational rate of sun, moon and stars.

Small equatorial tracking devices range from pocket sized devices that can carry a small camera with wide angle lens to devices that are basically a single axis of a small equatorial mount that can carry heavier payloads and even have modular declination axes that can be added to upgrade them to a two axis equatorial. Most but not all of these track reasonably well but have no guiding capacity so that you won't be able to do extended exposures with telephoto lenses. Many can be mounted on a solid camera tripod.

Many of the devices listed below can also be mounted to pan horizontally and drive at different rates other than that of the stars for time-lapse photography panning.

These are some of the small equatorial tracking device products currently available:-

Vixen Polarie
http://www.vixenoptics.com/Vixen-Pol...od-p/35517.htm

Skywatcher Star Adventurer
http://ca.skywatcher.com/_english/02...ail.php?sid=68

Baader NanoTracker
http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/...otography.html

IOptron Skytracker
https://www.ioptron.com/index.cfm?se...b-e534af12c1e2

Losmandy Starlapse
http://www.losmandy.com/starlapse.html

Astrotrac TT320X-AG
http://astrotrac.com/

Unitec SWAT trackers
https://translate.google.com/transla...htm&edit-text=

Have a read of the descriptions and specs and come back to us if you have questions.

cheers

Joe

Last edited by OzEclipse; 07-07-2015 at 08:11 PM.
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Old 07-07-2015, 09:55 PM
Russman (Russ)
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Location: Hurstbridge, Victoria, Australia.
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Thank you for the detailed response Joe! All my questions answered in one response!

It looks like one day I'll get an equatorial mount as eventually I want a telescope too, for now I think I'll persevere with my barn door whilst I save up a bit more cash!


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